The MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Simon Skhosana and the MEC for Community Safety, Security and Liaison Mr Vusi Shongwe have met with all disaster management stakeholders in the province to do an assessment of the province’s capability to prevent, mitigate and respond to disasters.
MEC Skhosana stated that the province is prone to disasters and therefore it is important that from time to time the province does an assessment of its capability to mitigate and respond to disasters. “Over the past few years we have had a number of flood disasters especially in the Ehlanzeni District. Our immediate response to disasters has been good, however we have not been good on our post disaster recovery. We must work together to develop an integrated plan to respond to disasters,” said Skhosana.
MEC Shongwe stated that the province needs to take issues of disaster management seriously. “Issues of disaster management should not be dealt with as a mere compliance matter but should be dealt with as a priority. As the province is located next to Swaziland and Mozambique, we must also engage them and involve them in our plans,” said Shongwe. He further urged all stakeholders to continuously seek new innovative ways of mitigating and responding to disasters and learn from more developed countries.
The meeting resolved on the following:
-
The province needs to develop a comprehensive integrated disaster management plan that will deal with issues of prevention, mitigation, management, education and awareness of disasters in the province.
-
The Provincial Disaster Management will develop a provincial schedule of meetings where all stakeholders will meet regularly to discuss disaster management issues rather than only meeting during emergencies or ad hocly.
-
All municipalities must have the minimum capacity to deal with disasters (i.e. a disaster centre and two fire engines).
-
Transnet to play a more strategic role in disaster management as they transport possible hazardous goods through the province.
- Mozambique and Swaziland to be involved in the provincial disaster management plans as they get heavily affected when the province is affected by floods.
The province has identified floods, severe weather conditions (hail and wind), veld fires, outbreak of communicable diseases, transportation incidents, hazardous materials, disasters during mass gatherings (service delivery protests) as the high risk disaster areas.
The meeting was attended by Executive Mayors, Municipal Managers, Disaster Management Officials, South African Police Services, South African National Defence Force, Working on Fire, Local fire Brigades, Security Agencies, Emergency Medical Services, Transnet and Traffic Authorities.
Contact person:
Simphiwe Kunene
Cell: 082 413 3931
Joseph Mabuza
Cell: 082 678 1450
