COGTA MEC, Fikile Xasa, commends Santam and the Sarah Baartman District Municipality on the execution of a fruitful partnership.
Efforts
by the Sarah Baartman District Municipality to ensure the safety of residents
in the region’s local municipalities got a boost when Santam unveiled a
donation of fire-fighting equipment valued at R1.3-million at an event held at
the Radisson Blu Hotel, in Port Elizabeth, on Wednesday.
The
handover was attended by Eastern Cape MEC for Cooperative Governance and
Traditional Affairs, Fikile Xasa; Sarah Baartman District Municipality
Executive Mayor, Khunjuzwa Eunice Kekana; Sarah Baartman District Municipality
Speaker, Nonkqubela Pieters; Sarah Baartman District Municipality Municipal
Manager, Ted Pillay, as well as various public officials and stakeholders.
The
donation of the fire-equipment comes after devastating fires led the Kouga
Local Municipality to declare is state of disaster.
Since
2015, Sarah Baartman District Municipality has a ‘Partnership for Risk and
Resilience’ with Santam, which aims to mitigate disasters, in such ways to
improve response times and management when disasters do strike.
Addressing
delegates, Executive Mayor Kekana,described; “In 2015, we entered into a
corporation agreement with Santam, and the agreement entailed assistance on two
specific issues, first of which being fire services and disaster management.
“The
agreement sought to be the capacitation of fire services in the District, where
various LMs have already benefitted, and today we stand here to witness further
contributions made by Santam to this very important cause.”
She
said that concerning disaster management, the municipality is proud to announce
that a Geographic Information System installation is underway.
“Santam
has managed to equip Kouga with hardware for computers, and first-aid training
through South African Red Cross has been undertaken in Blue Crane, Nalambe,
Kouga and Kou-Kamma Local Municipalities, just to name a few of the programs
through their initiative, which have been made possible,” the Mayor described.
“From
SBDM, we are truly grateful for the support and for the enhancement of service
delivery; the municipality would never have managed to undertake the study of
St. Francis Bay, in Kouga, without their [Santam] assistance.
"More
informal settlements will also be assisted in efforts to mitigate, prevent and
prepare for fires in the turn of disasters.”
Also
speaking at the handover,Tersia Mdunge, Santam Corporate Social
Investment Manager,said that there was a need forDistrict Disaster
Management Centres to enhance the capacity of the local government in the areas
of fire and flood risk management.
“Santam
is aware of this reality, and has heeded the call to take the lead to promote
climate risk adaptation and improve the resilience of the affected
communities,” Mdunge said.
“In
the Garden Route, we dispatched additional field assessment resources to support
our clients and business partners, and our current focus remains on making sure
our clients get the necessary assistance regarding their claims.”
The
fire-fighting equipment, which includes fire-fighting hoses, torches, rescue
ropes, self-contained breathing apparatus, chain-saws, portable communication
radios and structural fire-fighting protective clothing, will be handed over to
the seven local fire stations in the Sarah Baartman District region.
“All
this equipment, specifically the portable radios for quick response time, are
very important for all timeless responses,” Mdunge added.
“We
[Santam] received the request on what equipment the various fire-fighting
branches need, and this is the list of gear they needed.”
She
also emphasized on the importance for all corporates to partner with them to
assist the District, as the need for disaster management is great.
“This
is just a drop in the ocean, compare to the population that we actually serve
and compared to all the informal settlements in the District. In many cases,
the fire-fighters are not able to reach many of those congested informal
settlements, due to the special planning that needs to be done, so we need as
many fire-fighting equipment and fire-fighters as possible,” Mdunge said.
She
also expressed how important it is for all local municipalities, as well as the
District, to be more educated on mitigating disaster risks.
“Municipalities
bear the responsibility of managing fire ramifications of a disaster when it
strikes, especially local municipalities, who really bear the grunt. It is
important for them [LMs] to not only respond, but more importantly to mitigate
the risks, is the utmost requirement and we need to be able to say how many
lives or properties we were able to save.
“We
[Santam] recognise that extreme weather events are increasing in intensity and
we acknowledge that this poses risks to the stability and quality to human
society. We are therefore a strong advocate for the need to build local level
resilience and risk protection,” Mdunge concluded.
Kouga
Local Municipality Executive Mayor, Elza van Lingen, will on Friday report to
the National and Provincial Disaster Management on how the municipality plans
to recover from the recent fire disaster.