Question NW3705 to the Minister of Social Development

Reply:

Eastern and Western Cape

DSD

a)

1. The core mandate of the department is to render psychosocial support services through its cadre of professions to victims of disasters. This service continues to be available to those who need it and its availability was communicated at the Provincial Disaster Management Centre meetings where all Heads of Centres of the respective District Municipal Disaster Management Centres are in attendance.

2 The role of DSD in the response to a disaster is to coordinate own services in the form of psycho-social services and access facilitation to humanitarian relief to the affected communities.

In this regard DSD did the following:

1. The Red Cross Society of South Africa was identified by DSD as a collection and distribution point for donations due to their experience in responding to disasters.
2. Vodacom worked with Gift of the Givers to provide relief in areas identified by DSD through the Joint Operations Committee (JOC).
3. DSD linked Heal Our Land with the Cape Winelands and Overberg District Municipalities to support with the humanitarian relief response. Heal Our Land is still busy with providing relief in some areas within the Overberg Municipal area.
4. In the Metro, several humanitarian relief organisations provided support to the affected communities in collaboration with the City of Cape Town Disaster and Risk Management Centre.
5. The WeLoveUFoundation has also come on board and is willing to provide support in any identified area. DSD is working with the City of Cape Town (COCT) to identify an area where support is required. WeLoveUFoundation prefers to work within a metropolitan area oppose to a rural area.
6. The following Municipalities - Cape Winelands District Municipality, Overberg District Municipality and the City of Cape Town arranged with numerous Humanitarian Relief Organisations to provide hot meals and other nutrition as required to the affected communities within their area of operation.

The department continues to work collaboratively with all strategic partners and stakeholders to mitigate against the social vulnerabilities heaped upon the poorest of the poor resultant from the flood disaster.

b) The Department’s future social protection plan for vulnerable persons affected by disasters is to continue to work collaboratively with municipalities, community representatives and other stakeholders to identify hot spots for disasters. The whole of society and the whole of government approaches need to be engaged to raise awareness and caution vulnerable groups from illegally erecting informal structures in swamp, wetlands and/or low-lying areas. The Department works with all municipalities and stakeholders to development and implement the annual summer/winter readiness plans.

The Department will continue to establish and monitor the existing humanitarian social relief work-streams in the metro and rural municipalities as part of its preparedness and response mitigation plans.

The department will also continue to provide capacity building and education to internal staff and stakeholders on the DSD Social Relief Plan, Protocols and SOP’s that are in place.

The Department will also continue to provide psycho-social support to the vulnerable individuals affected by the disaster and where appropriate, refer affected and vulnerable individual to our sister departments and relevant stakeholders for material support and other needed services.

SASSA

a)

SASSA provides Social Relief of Distress to any person in need of immediate relief, as per Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004 (Section 13), together with Regulations 11, 16, 17, 18 and 19

The form of relief can be meals, thick foam sponges, blankets, vanity packs, baby pack, school uniforms, and or cash voucher as prescribed and approved by the Agency provided the affected persons meet the qualifying criteria.

The relief provided is on a short-term basis to persons affected by a disaster, declared or undeclared.

Declared disasters:

• A person may qualify for Social Relief of Distress if that household has been affected by a disaster as defined in the Disaster Management Act, 2002 (Act 57 of 2002).

• The value of social relief of distress paid to a person as a result of a disaster may not be recovered from any social grant payment, including an arrear payment.

• A list of persons or households affected by a disaster as verified by the Provincial or Local Disaster Management Response Unit will be regarded as the final list for the provision of immediate humanitarian relief.

Undeclared disaster:

• A person may qualify for Social Relief of Distress if that household has been affected by a disaster incident.

• A list of households affected by a disaster as verified by the provincial or local office of the Agency will be regarded as the final list of those who are affected for the purpose of disbursing Social Relief of Distress.

The below table depicts the number of people affected by floods in the Eastern and Western Cape and related costs dispersed in the 2023/2024 financial year.

Provinces	No. of people affected	Expenditure FY23/24
Eastern Cape	5,317	R2,446,125.00
Western Cape	16,611	R19,075 581.00
TOTAL	21,928	R21, 521,706.00

It must be noted the Social Relief of Disaster (SRD) response depends on the availability of funds. Further to that, assistance is discretionary.

b) DSD is in the process of drafting a National Disaster Framework which will incorporate, Disaster Preparedness, Response, Recovery and Rehabilitation processes. DSD is also working with NDMC to finalise the process of Disaster Funding Institutional Arrangement which will assist departments to access funding in the event of a disaster.

This will ensure that DSD has access to the much needed funds during disasters to effectively respond and assist the most vulnerable and poor people in the society.