South Africa: Disaster management amendment bill 2015

This bill amends the Disaster Management Act, 2002. The amendments include the following:

• clarification of policy focus on rehabilitation and functioning of disaster management centres
• alignment of the functions of the National Disaster Management Advisory Forum to accommodate the South African National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction
• providing for the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and South African Police Service (SAPS) to assist disaster management structures
• providing for an extended reporting system by organs of state on information regarding: events leading to declarations of disasters; expenditure on response and recovery; actions pertaining to risk reduction and particular problems experienced in dealing with disasters
• strengthening of reporting on implementation of policy and legislation relating to disaster risk reduction and management of allocated funding to municipal and provincial intergovernmental forums established in terms of the Intergovernmental Relations Act of 2005
• expanding the contents of disaster management plans to include conducting disaster risk assessments for functional areas, mapping of risk, areas and communities vulnerable to disasters; to provide measures to reduce the risk of disaster through adaptation to climate change and developing of early warning mechanisms
• providing for regulations on disaster management, education and training matters
• substitution and insertion of certain definitions