SA is in a perpetual state of disaster. Amid flooding that has caused a devastating natural disaster in many parts of KwaZulu-Natal the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs on April 13, 2022, declared a provincial state of disaster.
This declaration, by law, enables government to enact special provisions and powers to respond effectively to any disaster, natural or man-made. SA, and particularly the people in KwaZulu-Natal, are in desperate need of humanitarian support to avert any further loss of life, after more than 400 people were declared dead or missing as a direct result of the floods.
It is not only the loss of lives that characterises the depth of this tragedy, but terror and trauma that comes with sudden loss of life, amplified by losses of homes, personal possessions and a number of forms of security and basic human rights that have been snatched away in a matter of hours and days. In most countries around the world, the death of 400 people in a matter of less than a week would be cause for national distress that would capture the entire nation’s attention.
But in a country that has the worst inequality in the world, 70% youth unemployment and some of the highest rates of murder and rape globally, shocks that shake the whole country at once are perhaps tampered by the high levels of dysfunction and chaos that millions of people experience all too often.
For too many people in SA, fighting to survive is not the exception but the norm. Poverty, crime and of basic things like water, electricity and sanitation means that conditions that would be a humanitarian crisis in other parts of the world are a daily experience for people in South Africa. Nothing reinforces this more than the fire that broke out in an informal settlement in Langa, CapeTown on Saturday, April 2022.
More than 300 dwellings are said to have been affected and an estimated 1200 people have been displaced. A section of a community destroyed. People whose best station in life was already one without decent housing and basic services today find themselves more destitute and hopeless than before.
While the picture of flames bellowing to the sky and ashes where dwellings once were rightfully move us to sadness and concern, surely the sight of the shack dwellings that remain around the ashes of those burned down should have been as much of a source of concern, even without the threat of destructive fires that give an added shock value.
But poverty and inhumane living conditions have been normalised even in one of the cities in South Africa that is ranked on of the best in the world. We have normalised things that should be a crisis. In the aftermath of the KwaZulu-Natal floods, scenes of mass destruction of roads, bridges and other public infrastructure has focused the attention of some on the poor quality of construction that has made the region vulnerable to damage caused by natural disasters.
The displacement of countless people who have lost their homes, cars and life’s possessions has raised questions about the effectiveness of early warning systems that give people guidance on how to safeguard as many of their possessions and evacuate areas that are predicted to be structurally unsafe.
The growing NGOs who have made calls for financial assistance to aid food and shelter relief efforts, shine a light on the lack of faith people have in the government’s ability to provide that relief efficiently and effectively. This lack of trust in the state is only amplified by people who scoff at the minister of finance’s announcement of the release of a much needed R1bn in disaster relief funds, because on the back of large scale Covid-19 relief and other looting scandals people simply do not expect politicians to use the money for the intended purpose, even when lives are at stake.
If Covid-19 taught us anything, it is that governance is a matter of life and death. South Africa’s problems are many. They are structural.
Our problems are at a scale of crisis even when those crisis’s are not acute. As such our solutions need to be structural. We cannot continue being a society of ad hoc responses and patch-up jobs. The point of democracy is to have a government that serves all people and provides structural solutions that help us absorb the shocks that come with moments of acute disaster.
If our government cannot deliver that, it has failed and it is unsurprising that instead of entrenching democracy we have normalised disaster. We have a responsibility to each other to make the most of our democracy. Fixing the state of government and governance should be at the top of that collective effort.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.