Why SA’s excellent disaster management and legislation failed the Eastern Cape

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South Africa has excellent disaster management legislation on paper, but a lack of capacity and a reactive "biscuits and blankets" approach create immense vulnerability, especially for those living in unsafe, marginal areas. The country's multi-layered early warning system begins with national weather services such as the South African Weather Service (SAWS) and filters through provincial and local channels.

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Both Professor Coleen Vogel, a specialist in disaster risk reduction and professor from the Global Change Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, and the SAWS agreed that communication and serious engagement and trust building with communities are major weaknesses.

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This system should ensure that alerts from weather services are systematically disseminated through regional officers to frontline services such as fire departments, ambulance services and hospitals- in other words, line functions that reach all levels.

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In many communities, especially those with limited resources, implementing a fully equipped early warning system isn't feasible.

Instead of waiting for ideal solutions or an early warning system with all the bells and whistles, Vogel said it would be better to install functional, simpler systems that can still save lives and buy time until upgrades are possible.

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