Effects of Tropical Storm Eloise & recent flooding in Provinces; with Ministers

Meeting report

Opening Remarks Chairperson

The Chairperson opened the virtual meeting, welcoming the Members, Committee support staff as well as the delegation from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), led by the Minister.

She said that following the classification of the tropical storm Eloise as a national disaster according to the gazettes issued on 12 and 24 February 2021, it became the Committee’s responsibility to follow up on the contingency measures implemented to deal with the effects of the disaster. The Disaster Management Amendment Act of 2015 underscores the importance of accountability in disaster management. The Act does this by providing organs of state with a comprehensive reporting system on the information required relating to the disaster. Organs of state must report on expenditure relating to disaster response and disaster recovery. In addition, actions pertaining to risk reduction and challenges related to dealing with the disaster must also be reported.

The Chairperson said that these are empowering provisions, as they make it possible for us to hold both the NDMC and other relevant organs of state into account as far as compliance with the Act’s reporting requirements are concerned. She said in a recent interaction with municipalities under the jurisdiction of the Amathole District, it was disheartening when one of the municipalities alleged that it failed to report on disaster funding because it was not furnished with a reporting template. This is a clear indication that a culture of accountability for disaster management is not yet universally institutionalised. One of its key interests of the Committee is the implementation of the amendments relating to representation of traditional leaders in national, provincial and municipal disaster management advisory forums as well as the provision relating to the analysis of the impact of disaster on gender, age, disability and cultural perspectives. Previous disaster management interventions prior to the 2015 amendments, the Committee believes, tended to marginalise these key stakeholders. These are some of the key considerations, which the Committee plans to interrogate in relation to the tropical storm Eloise and the recent seasonal summer rains. She welcomed the Minister and asked her to proceed.

National Disaster Management Centre Briefing; Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma

Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, said that for the sake of time she would not make opening remarks and would rather wait until Dr Tau has presented, before saying something. She handed over to Dr Mmaphaka Tau, Deputy Director-General of COGTA and head of the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC), to present on behalf of the Department.

Presentation: Update on season rains (Inclusive of Eloise) and response measures to date

Dr Tau said that the summer seasonal plan was approved by Cabinet on 27 November 2020. It spells put operational procedures by all organs of state and relevant stakeholders for prevention, preparedness and response to specific hazards based on the risk identified by the South African Weather Service (SAWS). SAWS released a media statement during the week of the 17-23 January 2021, providing early warnings for the tropical cyclone Eloise landfall from South of Beira, Mozambique. The National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) immediately activated the National Seasonal Contingency Plan for 2020/21 Summer Season after the SAWS early warning alerts. The NDMC received contingency plans from provinces through Provincial Disaster Management Centres to ensure their preparedness towards impending winter season.

Strategic focus of Seasonal Planning

• The winter seasonal disaster Management Contingency Plan for 2021 provides a high-level, strategic and unifying framework that outlines measures needed to assist the country to deal with any emergency related to the extreme winter seasonal hazards through effective prevention, mitigation, emergency preparedness, response and recovery.
• The plan aims at mitigating the impact and consequences of these hazards to the health and wellbeing of the people, property, infrastructure and environment across the country and it follows a multi-hazard approach towards the implementation of emergency preparedness actions.

National Coordination of Efforts in Place

• Intergovernmental Committee on Disaster Management (ICDM), led by Minister of COGTA, continue to provide executive leadership in the implementation of summer seasonal contingency plan, as approved by Cabinet in 2020.
• The NDMC activated and coordinated the National Joint Flood Coordination Committee that constitutes of all relevant organs of state.
• Provincial Disaster Management Centres were also activated and the National Disaster Operations Centre Coordinated and led the analysis of reports from all provinces, organs of state and all other stakeholders.
• A communications task team led by the GCIS (Government Communication Information System) and COGTA is in place and coordinates communication and community mobilisation through all platforms.

Reallocation and Reprioritisation of funding by Organs of State

The declaration of a national state of disaster enabled augmentation of existing resources from reallocation of funds from existing programmes and grants within affected organs of state and provinces, as per the provision in Section 20(6) of the Division of Revenue Act (DORA) of 2020. Engagements were undertaken with National Treasury regarding the reallocation and the matter was presented to the National Joint Flood Coordination Committee.

Impact of Seasonal rains and Tropical Storm “Eloise”

Provinces Tropical Storm Eloise negatively affected a total of seven provinces and three districts. The impact varied in different provinces but mainly resulted in the following:

• Deaths and missing people (fifty-four and five, respectively)
• Infrastructure damage to houses, roads, schools, bridges and water pumps
• Agricultural damage was also incurred to various crop areas.

Dr Tau pointed Member to slide eight and explained the figures depicting drought hit areas and areas affected by Eloise. He also explained how each province was affected using the figures on the slides.

Key Challenges

• Recurring disaster damage within provinces
• Capacity constraints within Disaster management fraternity with the effects of COVID-19 and tropical storm exerting additional pressure
• Lack of implementation of developed contingency/preparedness plans by organs of states, particularly implementation of section 2(1)(b) of the Disaster Management Act (DMA).
• Minimal/lack of response to early warnings and advisories within communities (increased fatalities within the country.
• Non and delayed implementation of projects from normal departments and service delivery programmes within organs of state further aggravating vulnerability conditions within communities.

Solutions

• Focus on DRR (Disaster Risk Reduction) measures to mitigate against recurring damages, particularly Disaster Management Planning and implementation thereof
• Prioritisation of resourcing of the DM fraternity to enhance efficiency and effectiveness
• Institutionalisation of disaster management and mainstreaming of DRR within sector programmes
• Improved early action within sectors and communities
• Increased community mobilisation and advocacy initiatives
• Improved integrated planning among organs of state and actualisation of District Development Model.

Discussion

Ms P Xaba-Ntshaba (ANC) greeted the Minister and Department officials. She said the Disaster Management Act (DMA) was amended in 2015 with the aim of strengthening representation of traditional leaders on national, provincial and municipal Disaster Management Advisory forums. She asked if this has been achieved and what was the NDMC assessment of this project.

Mr C Brink (DA) thanked Dr Tau not just for the presentation but for his willingness to answer questions in relation to disaster management regulations, for clarifying issues and for his availability to the Committee and its Members. This type of professionalism is needed in the civil service. He said that he would not ask questions about Eloise; this storm was devastating and it is important for the Committee to have this report and note the commitments made by the NMDC as well as what has been put in place.

He said that if the Chairperson allowed, he would rather ask questions relating to the Disaster Management Act of 2002 and its regulations issued under it. Under the current Act, a state of disaster is declared only by the Minster of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. Once a state of disaster has been declared, the Minister gains a range of powers to make regulations effecting many aspects of society that can be argued that these powers are necessary to remedy the situation. The Minister also gains power to delegate law making functions to other Ministers and other officials; there is not much of a formal role for Parliament. Unlike other countries, in South Africa (SA) Parliament does not need to have a sitting to declare a state of disaster; it is only done through the Minister and the public takes note of it. He said that an interesting comparison to make is between SA’s state of emergency and national disaster laws. The key difference between the two is that a declaration of disaster does not need to be tabled in Parliament, unlike a declaration for a state of emergency. Once declared, a state of disaster does not need Parliament’s approval to be extended. Lastly, regulations issued out by the Minister under a state of disaster cannot be revoked by Parliament, unlike a state of emergency. He said these two Acts are similar and are open to the same level of abuse.

He said that a certain notice was issued by the Minister, calling on comments from the public and suggesting amendments to regulations dealing with the COVID-19 Vaccine Injury No-Fault Compensation Scheme. This notice gave the public until the 19th of April to make comments. On such serious amendments the public is only given four days, given the circumstance that so much Ministerial power already exists under a state of disaster. He asked if the four days are really sufficient in a constitutional democracy that requires public participation. More should be done to encourage participation. The Minister should do everything she possible can to involve the public and hear their voices instead of making these regulations by diktat.

There is a requirement on municipalities to give quarterly reports at IGR Forums, inter alia, on how disaster management funds are spent. He asked if whether municipalities are producing these expenditure reports, what has been done to make sure municipalities produce these reports and if the NDMC have the capacity to interrogate on a quarterly basis. He asked this because COVID-19 relief money has been looted and abused to line the pockets of well-connected officials; there must be accountability on this matter. Pretoria is built on dolomite and this can cause a sinkhole. He asked if national government has made funds available to the City of Tshwane and if there is a focus to assist municipalities that are facing this problem.

Mr G Mpumza (ANC) said that climate change has a huge effect on the disasters currently experienced, particularly storms, and this calls for organs of state to develop better disaster contingency plans that take into account climate change. Government must build infrastructure that is resilient and can withstand the effects of climate change. He said one of the challenges highlighted in the presentation is poor planning by state organs. He then asked what provisions or steps the Disaster Management Act provides the NMDC and the Minister to undertake recourse or corrective measures when an organ of state has failed to develop disaster contingency plans. He said that early warnings are not listened to by communities and said government needs to go beyond mobilisation; the state needs to take an aggressive approach on education awareness and establish disaster voluntary brigades, which will continuously provide education to communities, especially vulnerable communities that may not understand climate change or disasters.

Ms H Mkhaliphi (EFF) agrees with Mr Brink, Dr Tau is very professional and must keep up the good work. The presentation painted a very clear picture and gave a good explanation of disaster management at a national level but alluded that there is still challenges when it comes to provinces and municipalities. She asked what the coordinated programmes between all levels of government are, because there cannot be good plans budgeted for at a national level. The real issues affecting communities happen at a municipal level. The presentation alludes that there is poor or no planning happening at a municipal level and this is where the problem is. She asked in the context of local government: how must contingency plans be developed, and is there an early warning system that municipalities can use to foresee if floods or storms will happen? There are recurring disaster damages happening within provinces and this is because of the delayed implementation of projects.

She asked, if there are no coordinated programmes, how will the NDMC achieve its objectives? There is a problem of aging infrastructure within provinces and municipalities, which exacerbates these disasters. She asked what the NDMC is doing to ensure municipalities report back to the NDMC on implementation of projects and contingency plans. Municipalities always cry foul, saying they do not have funds for disaster management; municipalities will give people just a blanket and tin food, and these are people that have lost their houses and everything they own. There needs to be a coordinated programme with departments such as housing, social development as well as water and sanitation because a fragmented programme will not be successful. Lasty, she asked what the presentation means when it says augmented resources and how disaster funds are disbursed to municipalities.

Mr K Ceza (EFF) asked what the difference between a state of disaster and a state of emergency is and what the requirements to declare a state of disaster are, because when COVID-19 started to spread, SA declared a state of disaster when not even 10 people had COVID-19. He also asked what interventions and contingency plans were put in place at a district and local level prior to the declaration of the state of disaster. How many people were trained to deal with this disaster and what possible remuneration was given to these people? He asked this because municipalities have used volunteers for an extended period. When using volunteers for long periods of time, the goal would be to absorb these volunteers. Municipalities advertise reservist positions, and these people often do not get benefits and they have families to support. He asked how many fire experts the NDMC employs and if there is a sufficient number of them. Would Dr Tau mention their names placed at District Municipalities?

How many ground teams are in place at a local level to guard against disasters and do trained practitioners fall under fire and rescue or under disaster management? What are the most common disasters occurring in SA and how best can the country prepare for them? What are the technical skills requirements for disaster management practitioners and why is SA using private companies to render veld firefighting services, exploiting Africans in partnership with the governments? Why do municipalities not have sufficient capacity to render veld firefighting services? What international assistance does SA receive regarding disasters?

The Chairperson said that Dr Tau must provide a detailed report on the 31 Districts that were affected by storm Eloise. This will help the Committee understand the impact the storm had on communities. She said that there are five people missing because of the storm; this is an inevitable consequence of the storm. She asked for detailed report or an update on the matter. She asked Dr Tau to inform the Committee which provinces these people were from, adding that perhaps the Committee could do an oversight visit to these areas. She said that storms are exacerbated because of poor infrastructure and people staying in flood prone areas. It is important that traditional healers are involved in disaster management; they are in a better position not only to assist but can better inform their communities.

She pointed out that from slide 15, there is a status quo report on intervention measures in provinces. It is critical for provinces to attend these meetings because there are issues that provinces need to account on. There was reprioritisation happening in Eastern Cape, but it had no specific timeline. Dr Tau will not be able to respond to that; hence she wanted provinces to be present to answer such questions. She said there are many issues that provinces do not attend to and this happens year after year. The year 2021 is an election year and people will raise these problems – problems they have been complaining about for years. It feeds into the “government does not care” narrative.

She then asked Dr Tau to provide the Committee with the number of municipalities that are not compliant with Section 3 of the Disaster Management Act, on the establishment of disaster management centres. There are some MEC’s that do not even know that they need to develop contingency plans; some know they need to but still do not develop these plans. Provinces need to implement the Act and all levels of government need to know that they have a role to play in implementing this Act. There needs to be a follow up with all provinces who do not have contingency plans in place. Oversight visits should be planned and conducted to check whether provinces are compliant with the Act. It is disappointing that government does not plan for these disasters. There is no proactiveness; government is just reacting and even the response is not good enough. She added that most disaster management facilities are standing idle and state of the art infrastructure becomes white elephants. There is lack of understanding from municipalities on what the Act requires. There is also a problem with the turnaround time in dealing with these disasters. Three months after a disaster people still cannot cross a river and infrastructure remains unfixed. In some arears people are still dealing with the effects of disasters that happened in 2000. She asked how this is possible because budgets are allocated for this and there is no accountability or follow ups on the situation. She said that she raised this because government deals very casually with disaster; there needs to be accountability. The Department, together with the NDMC, must come up with better systems to make provinces and municipalities account.

Responses

Minister Dlamini-Zuma said that she has to leave the meeting but will answer the question asked by Mr Brink. She said that she understands the Members’ concern over the short period of calling for public comments, but government was under a lot of pressure as vaccine manufactures came with a lot of conditions for the Health Department. Until the Health Department concluded all agreements, COGTA was unable to publish any regulations surrounding vaccines, and when agreements were finished, manufacturers said they will not release vaccines unless No-Fault Compensation Scheme has been published. Had COGTA extended the comment period, there would have been a longer delay for SA to receive vaccines. Government did not want to exclude people from making comments, but this was the dilemma the Department was faced with. She said that there were around 13 000 comments made during those four days. She assured the Committee that if there is something they feel strongly about or have a particular view, they can still send their views through to the Department. This applied to all South Africans.

She said that the Disaster Management Act does not necessarily require regulations to be put out for comment but COGTA felt this was an important amendment to the regulations and is a new scheme which affects everyone. Even though there was time constraints, COGTA still put it out for comments; COGTA had to make a difficult decision to make. She hoped that Members would understand this.

The difference between a state of emergency and a state of disaster is a state of emergency is very specific. For example, if the country is threatened by war or civil unrest, invasion and insurrection, the declaration is important to restore peace and order. So, a state of emergency is more around peace and order rather than dealing with disasters such as COVID-19. States of emergencies get approved by Parliament and these normally last for short periods of time, unlike a pandemic or a disaster – which government cannot predetermine when they will end. She said that Cabinet looked at which best Act to implement, and after careful consideration it was decided the Disaster Management was the best to remedy the pandemic.

She thanked the Committee and said that she has to leave the virtual meeting. The Department delegation will further respond.

Dr Tau responded, thanked the Committee for its questions and comments. He said that COGTA will continue to strive for excellence under the leader of the Minister. He said that disaster management, like any other function, happens under the framework of cooperative governance systems, which involves the need for the three spheres of government to work together in a concerted and coordinated manner. Some Members have actually emphasised the matter of an integrated response, where the three spheres of government work together. There needs to be an interlink between the spheres, while they are still distinct and enjoy their own autonomy. At national level, COGTA can only encourage and persuade other levels to generate and implement plans and also provide assistance on this. There has already been engagement with traditional leaders and a presentation was made to the national council of traditional leaders. There was a meeting last week with this structure and agreements were put in place to enhance participation on a local, provincial and national level. COGTA has not yet reached a stage where there is maximum participation from traditional leaders and participation is still low but COGTA is has put plans in place to this foster their participation.

He said that sinkholes, as with other hazards, are dealt with by the Disaster Management Act. There are grants in place for sinkholes and NDMC has allocated about R118 million to municipalities to deal with sinkholes and an additional R46 million will be disbursed to municipalities to deal with the repairs of these sinkholes. Should there be an occurrence of a sinkhole, the starting point should not be tapping into national disaster management funds but the relevant sectors, including municipalities, should allocate from their own budgets funds to prevent sinkholes from occurring. Only if the sinkhole is of a huge magnitude, which the municipality is unable to deal with, can the Department ask for assistance from the NDMC; this should be based on the contingency plan a municipality should already have. The City of Tshwane has known for years that they are under dolomite and they should already have plans in place not only to prevent sinkholes from occurring but to remedy them. NDMC only comes in as a last resort. There is a municipal grants framework and municipalities need to comply with certain regulations and rules when applying for this grant. Grants are administered when municipalities submit their disaster plans and when a grant is approved. There are conditions attached to this grant; one of the conditions is that municipalities must submit quarterly financial reports and statements stating how they are using funds. However, this is not always successful, and municipalities fail to submit reports and statements.

He said that COGTA adapted a climate change adaption strategy and this is currently being implemented through a number of projects; these projects are worked on in conjunction with the Department of Environmental Affairs. He said that the NDMC receive international funding from the Global Climate Fund and these funds can only be used to implement climate change strategies. The NDMC works with land care and focus on four key areas: soil care, water care, conservation and agriculture, together with the junior care programme of land care. There is solid collaboration, and implementation needs to be heightened. An allocation of R 3.2 billion was made for drought relief in 2019 and the land care programme was used to implement drought relief all over South Africa.

He said that there is risk profile compiled for every municipality, which helps municipalities with early warning and capability systems. This helps COGTA to see which hazards they need to prepare for every season. On the implementation of a coordinated programme with all three spheres, he explained that this is sometimes difficult and COGTA is not always successful in encouraging municipalities to develop and implement contingency plans; there is a lack of willingness on part of municipalities. If municipal councils do not approve contingency plans, they will be unable to use funds allocated for disaster management and sometimes these funds get returned to Treasury. COGTA is always willing to provide assistance in developing and implementing contingency plans but municipalities are sometimes reluctant, and this results in projects not being implemented. COGTA will continue and try very hard to address this with municipalities.

Augmenting resources means that in terms of Section 2.1 of the Act an incident is not a disaster if it could be dealt with using the relevant sector legislation or regulations in place. It is only when relevant legislation or regulations are unable to cope or deal with the situation and their funds are not adequate that the matter can be escalated. This is called augmenting because it will be a combined response from the NDMC and the relevant sector. This happens when the relevant sector experiences a shortfall of funding.

He said that Parliament has structured the Act in such a way that it deals only with natural disasters that must be unforeseen and of natural origin. The NDMC does not deal with any security issues or any other situation that is not classified as a natural disaster. The NDMC only administers two legislative Acts – the Disaster Management Act and the Fire Services Act. On 27 May 2020, Cabinet approved the White Paper on Fire Services, which will replace the current Fire Brigade Services Act. The NDMC will not be able to answer the questions around fires at this time. The information asked around training and how many people are placed in districts needs to be sourced but that will be done and will be provided to the Committee. He said there are no ground teams but there are teams situated at a local, provincial and national Level.

He said the common hazards SA experiences are fires, floods and droughts. This has changed over the years and sinkholes have emerged as a problem. Some of these hazards have been worsened by climate change. He said that there is a difference between an accident and a disaster: an accident can be one sinkhole or one building falling because of weather conditions, and a disaster affects the whole community on a severe level and happens at a magnitude that needs the intervention of the NDMC. There is a need to have timelines for reprioritisation and the NDMC is currently putting plans in place to mitigate this. However, this will depend on consultations with different HOD’s of different departments. There is platform where municipalities and provinces submit their disaster management plans to the NDMC. So far, 120 plans have been submitted to the NDMC, but the issue is always on implementation.

There is a seasonal disaster management plan, which is distributed to all spheres of government – local, provincial and national organs of state. This plan helps organs prepare for seasonal disasters and in the current season much of the disasters take place in the western parts of the country and affects provinces such as Free State, Northern Cape and Western Cape. The current drought is still happening in Eastern Cape and Northern Cape, but seasonal rains should mitigate this factor. Flooding and fires get enhanced in the Western Cape. There is a detailed autumn disaster plan on the NDMC website, and it is posted in the chat zoom, if Members want to consult it. This plan is produced consultation with the South African Weather Services.

Follow-up discussion

Mr Ceza said that municipalities still exploit volunteers and this question was not answered in some municipalities. Volunteers have been working for municipalities for over 10 years, and this is exploitation. He asked how the NDMC makes sure appointed managers have ground experience. He said that Section 24 of the Constitution stipulates that communities have the right to a clean environment. How does the NDMC categorise disasters that occur from mines, such as dust coming from these mines affecting the health of communities?

Ms Mkhaliphi said that she did not hear Dr Tau speak on the issue of municipalities and their legislative mandate when it comes to the Disaster Management Act. She asked how the NDMC deals with municipalities that tell people they do not have funds for disasters.

Dr Tau responded that Disaster Management Act functions apply to all organs of the state and the three spheres are responsible for implementing the Act in a coordinated matter. The Act also advises for the establishment for volunteers, and volunteer regulations stipulate how it must be handled. There is compensation for volunteers, and municipalities run this programme. He said that he will seek further information from municipalities and inform the Committee about the issue around volunteers.

He said that the issue with mines falls under the Department of Environmental Affairs. Mines must also have their own contingency plans and provide steps on how they will do rehabilitation of environments. He said that municipalities claiming to not have funds can be traced to their development plans and poor planning. The IDP (Integrated Development Planning) of a municipality spells out how municipalities must spend their funds, and a disaster management plan needs to be included in the IDP according to the constitution. This means that disaster management plans of municipalities must always be funded. He said some of these issues raised will be worked on and feedback will be provided to the Committee.

The Chairperson asked Dr Tau to submit information promised to the Committee within a five-day period. She also thanked the NDMC for its presentation.

She reminded Members that the Committee will be going on oversight visits in the North West and will ask the NDMC to give reports on these municipalities, including a provincial report. The Committee will send Dr Tau a list of these municipalities.

The meeting was adjourned.