Dissemination and participation in early warnings and disaster risk reduction in South Africa.

Governments cannot effectively manage and handle disasters, particularly at the local community level, without actively engaging vulnerable people. The key to achieving sustainability in disaster recovery is community participation and information dissemination. The informal settlements' lack of access to information and public engagement hampered their ability to recovery, thus prompting this study. Therefore, many cities and intervention partnerships faced information and participation gaps in disaster risk reduction (DRR). The study's rationale was to determine the participation and communication of Khayalitjha household heads, regarding DRR information dissemination for sustainable human settlement, using a cross-sectional household survey of 295 household heads from Khayalitjha in situ informal settlement in the Free State provinces of South Africa. The security of dwelling unit tenure concept was an indirect indicator used to measure social resilience. The key findings revealed that community volunteers, ward committee members and most of the respondents, were responsible for initiating the DRR and disaster preparedness planning process. This indicated that local government needs to strengthen the human resource capacity building for DRR management information dissemination at a local level. The church, school, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were the preferred modes of communication for early warnings of disaster information. Contribution: Despite advocating for a multidisciplinary stakeholder approach, urban DRR studies tend to ignore communities in high disaster-risk areas. Employing social resilience, it aims to extend the DRR information dissemination strategy to in situ informal settlements beyond the communication and public participation advocacy strategies of local municipal urban cities.

COVID-19 disaster response: South African disaster managers' faith in mandating legislation tested?

For the first time in the history of the Disaster Management Act, 57 of 2002, South Africa declared COVID-19 an epidemiological disaster. Section 3 and 27(1) of this Act activated the responsible Minister in consultation with other Ministers to issue regulations in response to the disaster. The declaration exposed the already criticised Act to scrutiny by the public. Therefore, this study investigated the Metropolitan Disaster Management Centres that coordinate local events and support the provincial and national disaster management centres, their perceptions concerning the disaster management legislation that mandates them. The study recognised a gap in this regard and saw it imperative to give the disaster managers a voice and a platform to express their opinion concerning the heavily criticised legislation. A model of the policy implementation process guided the study investigation. This model argues that implementation of policies tends to generate tensions, which result in a disruption of the policy formulators' expectations. The research uses some of the model's variables to measure the perceptions of disaster managers. Using an interview guide, the researchers conducted virtual interviews with the disaster managers. Scholarly and media articles review concerning the Act formed part of the data collection. The study finds that the disaster managers perceive the disaster management legislation as a very useful guide, an excellent piece of legislation and trust it regardless of the criticism it received. The gaps the critics identified in the legislation became evident and had negative effects on the COVID-19 disaster response.

Coping and adaptation mechanisms employed by sub-Saharan African migrant women in South Africa.

This article assesses the socio-economic coping and adaptation mechanisms employed by sub-Saharan African migrant women in South Africa using a survey and multi-attribute contingent ratings. The socio-economic and adaptation mechanisms were identified using a sustainable livelihood framework, which included political and cultural capital. This study focused on the rarely investigated South-South migration flows. The results found that the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of migrant women played a significant role in the coping and adaptation mechanisms they employed. Human capital ranked the highest, followed by physical, cultural, social, economic and political capitals. This implies that the livelihood capital has an implication: the migrant women need to have education and health services to survive in day-to-day activities of their life as human capital. They need also to sustain economically at least to cover house rent, food, communicate with family and assist the family as economic and physical capitals. Furthermore, they need to adapt, respect and live with the culture of the host nation in harmony and conducive environment as social, cultural and political capitals.

Communities' perceptions of health hazards induced by climate change in Mount Darwin district, Zimbabwe.

Climate change contributes toward many global challenges, such as increases in diseases in some communities, thereby accelerating health hazards to disasters. Establishing the extent to which local communities understand and perceive climate change and related health hazards is important for effective disaster risk management strategies. The objective of this study was to investigate communities' perceptions of health hazards induced by climate change in Mount Darwin district of Zimbabwe. This was in the light that besides the visible indications that climate is changing, the local people still perceive the climate change phenomenon as mystical or even a non-event. The study was situated within the social capital theory contextualised within the climate change, disaster management and the knowledge and perception realm constructed through social relationships, networks and interactions. A mixed-method research approach was used to assess the extent of knowledge and perceptions related to climate change and climate change-related health hazards. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to survey 204 participants from 10 wards in Mount Darwin, Zimbabwe. Respondents were purposively selected as they were mostly characterised by high vulnerability levels. While 38% of the respondents were not aware of climate change, 7% correctly identified climate change as caused by both natural and man-made forces. Most (89%) of the respondents stated that hazards occur mainly because of meteorological and hydrological causes. The study therefore recommended further education and awareness programmes to deepen community understanding of climate change. Despite the communities having some knowledge gaps and lacking an in-depth understanding of how climate change alters disease, there was some vital information within the Mount Darwin community that could have been used in local disaster risk management initiatives.

Nutritional vulnerability: An assessment of the 2010 feeding food programme in Mbire district, Zimbabwe, and its impact on pregnant women.

Malnutrition contributes significantly to Zimbabwe's high maternal mortality rate. The prevalence of malnutrition among vulnerable pregnant women in the Mbire district of Zimbabwe was studied to establish why they remained vulnerable despite benefiting from the Vulnerable Group Feeding Programme, a subsidiary of the World Food Programme. A case study on the demographic characteristics, nutritional provision of the programme and the vulnerable pregnant women benefiting from the programme was conducted. One hundred women were purposively sampled at health centres in the district. A two-stage sampling procedure was then utilised to select the most food-insecure wards. The two most food-insecure wards, namely Angwa and Chapoto, were chosen because of their proximity to each other. A questionnaire was administered to the pregnant women to collect their demographic information. Practising nurses at the health centres determined the women's nutritional status and anthropometrics, and they also assessed the food baskets. Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the relevant authorities. The results indicated that the food hamper provided by the World Food Programme was complementary food aid given to all vulnerable members of the community regardless of the nutritional demands. The supplements that the pregnant women received were also inadequate to cater for their nutritional needs or those of the foetuses. It was therefore recommended that the government, through the Ministry of Health, should make more provisions available for vulnerable pregnant women in order to reduce the risks facing pregnant women in the country.

Assessing the knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding cholera preparedness and prevention in Ga-Mampuru village, Limpopo, South Africa.

The study assessed the knowledge, attitudes and practices of cholera prevention and preparedness in Ga-Mampuru village (Limpopo, South Africa). Interviewers collected data using a two-pronged method, namely a household questionnaire (open- and closed-ended questions) to assess knowledge and attitudes about cholera and observations to assess practices in the prevention and management of the disease. Additionally, interviewers took pictures with the respondents' permission. Ninety-six respondents were interviewed. Most respondents (86%) indicated they knew how cholera was contracted with 84% indicating contaminated water as a source. Ninety percent of the respondents indicated they knew how to prevent contracting cholera. All respondents generally knew that cholera could be treated with medicine received at a health-care facility or worker. Fewer respondents (58%) had specific knowledge such as the use of rehydration solutions. The respondents' high level of prevention practices could be biased. Interviewers observed that many practices were not adhered to, like not washing hands, not using toilet paper and throwing waste in respondents' yards. Therefore, the community of Ga-Mampuru had not reached a stage of adequate cholera prevention and preparedness in spite of the fact that they were aware of cholera risks and risk-reduction measures.

Combating HIV and/or AIDS: A challenge to Millennium Development Goals for disaster managers in the Southern African Development Community.

Disaster management is a process of planning and implementation of measures involving multiple disciplines and sectors; hence Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) cannot go unnoticed. Approximately 189 member states agreed to endeavour to achieve MDGs which should be accomplished by 2015. The purpose of this research was to establish the primary involvement of the disaster management fraternity within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region in this agreement. SADC countries are the countries with a high prevalence of HIV and AIDS and they feature on the disaster manager's priority list of hazards, hence the focus on MDG 6 for this study. Various data gathering tools were employed and included making use of indicators developed by the United Nations to review disaster management statutes or civil protection statutes and scholarly documents on the progress of MDG 6. Structured interviews were carried out with heads of disaster management centres of SADC countries through the guidance of MDG 6 indicators. The main findings were that most statutes do acknowledge the fight against epidemics and most disaster managers are aware of MDG 6 and are involved in its achievement. It was recommended that disaster managers should be part of the Post 2015 MDG delegation.

Artisanal small-scale mining: Potential ecological disaster in Mzingwane District, Zimbabwe.

Artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) has devastating impacts on the environment, such as deforestation, over-stripping of overburden, burning of bushes and use of harmful chemicals like mercury. These environmental impacts are a result of destructive mining, wasteful mineral extraction and processing practices and techniques used by the artisanal small-scale miners. This paper explores the ecological problems caused by ASM in Mzingwane District, Zimbabwe. It seeks to determine the nature and extent to which the environment has been damaged by the ASM from a community perspective. Interviews, questionnaires and observations were used to collect qualitative data. Results indicated that the nature of the mining activities undertaken by unskilled and under-equipped gold panners in Mzingwane District is characterised by massive stripping of overburden and burning of bushes, leading to destruction of large tracts of land and river systems and general ecosystem disturbance. The research concluded that ASM in Mzingwane District is an ecological time bomb, stressing the need for appropriate modifications of the legal and institutional frameworks for promoting sustainable use of natural resources and mining development in Zimbabwe. Government, through the Ministry of Small Scale and Medium Enterprises, need to regularise and formalise all gold mining activities through licensing, giving permanent claims and operating permits to panners in order to recoup some of the added costs in the form of taxes. At the local level, the Mzingwane Rural District Council (MRDC) together with the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) need to design appropriate environmental education and awareness programmes targeting the local community and gold panners.