The Democratic Alliance (DA) has conducted an oversight visit to the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) in Pretoria to review their drought preparations, in light of government's denialist claims that there is no national disaster.
According to the DA the NDMC is not getting the necessary information it needs from the various stakeholders, chief among them the provinces. This means that some provinces, while being severely drought-stricken, are precluded from getting the necessary aid they need to the detriment of thousands of people and their livelihoods.
As such the DA is once again calling on the government to intervene where municipalities and provinces refuse to do so and declare the ensuing drought a national crisis.
As the government continues in their denial, despite it being the worst drought on record for 112 years, farmers continue to lose livestock, food prices continue to soar and the poor are further marginalised from access to basic resources.
The government's detachment from reality was further exposed when Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Bheki Cele remarked that the late rains offer a solution to the situation, further reaffirming that South Africa will not be declaring the drought a national disaster, despite reports by his department that the rains are too late.
Other southern African countries, including Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Namibia have prioritised drought relief efforts by centralising relief efforts at a national level, as opposed to the fragmented regional and provincial extemporaneous approach the South African government has elected.
According to DA, the lack of both leadership and urgency by government is driving the country into an imminent doom, unless President Zuma assumes responsibility for drought relief in his upcoming SONA.
The DA will persist in holding the government accountable in dealing with this disaster.
