Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and COGTA Deputy Minister Thembi Nkadimeng.
- Deputy Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Thembi Nkadimeng has led the country’s commemoration of the 2022 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.
- Thursday marked International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.
- South Africa is among 187 countries that signed and agreed to the Sendai Framework’s goals of significantly reducing loss of life and livelihoods caused by disasters by 2030.
Improving South Africa’s response to natural disasters took centre stage at a commemoration event held in the City of Cape Town’s council chambers on Thursday.
Deputy Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Thembi Nkadimeng led the country’s commemoration of the 2022 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Nkadimeng said food security, poverty and inequality were among the most significant challenges facing humanity which, in turn, have caused concerning calamities and disasters.
“Inequality between countries has persisted. This unabated greed has led to untold misery among refugees who have been forced to leave their homes due to conflict,” she added.
International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction was marked on Thursday, with a focus on encouraging a global culture of risk awareness and catastrophe preparedness. The theme this year is “Early Warning”.
Nkadimeng said the government must critically assess how far it was as a country in sustaining and substantially increasing the availability and critical access to early warning systems.
“We intend to commemorate but take stock in relation to the progress that we have made,” she added.
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South Africa is among 187 countries that signed and agreed to the Sendai Framework’s goals of significantly reducing loss of life and livelihoods caused by disasters by 2030.
The framework is also aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
Regarding the devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal in April this year, which resulted in the deaths of 435 people, the deputy minister said it pained them early warning signs had indicated there would be heavy rains and an evacuation would be necessary.
She added:
The long and short of it is that we did not evacuate, and 400 households were lost. Early warning systems can save lives, but we must involve the people; we must cover man-made and natural hazards.
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the metro had its fair share of disasters, such as the mountain fire in 2021, flooding on the Cape Flats and shack fires.
“We all know that Cape Town has always been a water-scarce city. It’s getting drier in South Africa, and we must prepare for the consequences of that.
“We have to work closely with our teams and do our best planning event and to ensure that our services and our residents are as resilient as possible,” he added.
Western Cape Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell said the UN’s International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction was a global platform that allowed them to renew local preparedness for disasters, as well as plans for risk reduction during unforeseen events.
“Since 2000, the Western Cape experienced 19 major floods and two significant droughts, with the 2018 drought and the threat of Day Zero still firmly in our memories.
“Fires occur every year with the most severe being the Knysna fire in July 2017. In this fire, an estimated 900 formal houses were destroyed, and 1 533 households were affected.
“Infrastructure damages came to approximately R5 billion. During this time, the province also had to deal with the unacceptable attacks on foreign nationals in 2008 and the Covid-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022,” he added.
