The city council was well prepared to handle natural disasters; however, this depended on the magnitude or impact of the disaster, Joburg Emergency Management Services (Jems) spokesperson Nana Radebe.
“The city must comply with the Disaster Management Act and has presently R15 million put aside for immediate use and could also make other millions available after the incident has been declared a disaster.”
In cases where a large-scale disaster occurred, a Mutual Agreement had been signed with other adjoining municipalities to assist, Radebe said.
The municipality’s disaster management was also required to undertake an ongoing risk assessment to determine and classify its top ten risks according to impact, frequency and magnitude, she added.
However, the assessment was not limited to these ten but also determined and classified other risks.
This classification ensured that contingency plans were developed and essential resources to deal with all risks were available, she explained.
“Evacuation plans are part of Contingency Planning and crucial in ensuring that no lives are lost. This includes identifying special routes and assembly points per ward or wards.”
In addition, she said, the city council emergency management services continuously sent its search and rescue teams abroad for training.
“Three successful missions from Japan, Pakistan and Iraq set up a lesson platform for the city in understanding the facilitation of major disasters and the new Early Warning Methodology Systems that could be used for future disasters.”
Contributing further to the city council’s arsenal of disaster management resources, she said, the municipality had recently received specialised equipment to deal with emergencies and disasters.
Earlier this year the city council invested in three specialised vehicles for its emergency management services including an incident command vehicle, a search and rescue vehicle, and a hazardous material (hazmat) vehicle – costing R24 million.
Meanwhile, shortly after the most recent earthquake in the North West province, which was felt in many parts of South Africa including Joburg, municipal emergency management services said no injuries or structural collapses were reported.
Most of the derelict buildings in the inner city had been inspected, Radebe said.
However, she added, “It is the owners of the buildings who must inform building control about the state of their buildings.”
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