{"id":848173,"date":"2026-01-19T08:15:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T06:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=848173"},"modified":"2026-01-19T08:16:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T06:16:05","slug":"another-national-disaster-for-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/848173\/another-national-disaster-for-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Another national disaster for South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa officially has another National Disaster following severe weather and widespread flooding across five provinces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following severe weather and widespread flooding, a National Disaster has been classified under the Disaster Management Act, 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The classification was effected by the Head of the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC), Elias Sithole, following consultations with relevant organs of state and Heads of Provincial Disaster Management Centres. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) said that the decision follows a comprehensive assessment of adverse weather conditions experienced since late November 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The severe weather, including heavy rainfall, strong winds, lightning, and flooding, affected Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, and the North West. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These floods resulted in a loss of life, significant damage to infrastructure and property, environmental degradation, displacement of communities, disruption to schooling and agricultural activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have also been parts of Kruger National Park that were closed. Mpumalanga alone recorded 20 fatalities, with further rainfall warnings in place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The classification also follows extraordinary oversight visits by President Ramaphosa and Cogta Minister Hlabisa to see flood-affected areas and witness first-hand the scale of devastation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While not declared a National Disaster, the classification means the National Executive assumes primary responsibility for coordinating and managing it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All organs of state across the three spheres of government are required to strengthen support to disaster management structures, implement contingency measures and submit progress reports to the NDMC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Minister Hlabisa reaffirmed the government\u2019s commitment to restoring normality and rebuilding affected areas, with an emphasis on building back better through resilient infrastructure,” said Cogta. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crisis for South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n
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The floods in parts of the country are only one of the several issues facing South Africa, with other parts of the state calling for disaster relief. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Western Cape government has also called for a provincial state of disaster to be declared amid wildfires and a worsening water crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen also announced that he will table a declaration of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak as a state of disaster at the next Cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid these issues, Minister Hlabisa held a meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee on Disaster Management over the past weekend, which agreed upon immediate intervention measures and additional support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Response and recovery efforts will continue to be coordinated to ensure that assistance reaches all affected communities,” said Cogta. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Minister Hlabisa reaffirmed that the state stands firmly with the people during this recovery period and remains committed to supporting communities as they rebuild and recover.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest classification of a National Disaster<\/a> comes hot on the heels of Gender based violence and feminicide (GBVF) in South Africa being classified as a National Disaster in November 2025, following widespread protests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there is a distinction between a state of disaster being \u201cclassified\u201d and a state of disaster being \u201cdeclared\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Classifying a state of catastrophe enables the government to coordinate and manage disaster response by assigning responsibility to specific government spheres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A national state of disaster is declared when more than one province is impacted, where response cannot be managed effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where existing legislation and contingency measures are inadequate to address the situation, or where other exceptional circumstances exist, the government would declare a state of disaster, which is not the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa has a new National Disaster following widespread floods across five provinces. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":848178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[10395,24546],"class_list":["post-848173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-cogta","tag-ndmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848173"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":848182,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848173\/revisions\/848182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}