Disaster Risk Management at the Local Level: The Case of Ethekwini City Council in South Africa

There has been advanced development of progressive disaster management legislation/policies globally, which are intended primarily to ensure progress in disaster risk reduction (DRR). This chapter critiques the application of the disaster risk reduction policies/plans at the local sphere, using eThekwini Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa as a case study. More specifically, it presented a critical assessment of disaster risk reduction practices with a view to addressing disaster risk management gaps at the local level. A qualitative case-study strategy was utilized as the primary paradigm, and participants were purposively selected from a multidiscipline source population, namely, municipal disaster management practitioners, councillors, and relevant departments. Analysis of emergent data was conducted through a combination of descriptive statistical and content analysis. eThekwini Disaster Management Centre has noteworthy capacity constraints, both technical and nontechnical, evident in service shortcomings, notably incomplete plans/frameworks coupled with the absence of significant institutional arrangements, namely, an operational Disaster Management Advisory Forum. The approach to disaster management is reactive rather than proactive, evident from the lack of a disaster management blueprint informed by an assessment of disaster risk. Apart from the theory development phase, a practice framework was proposed with recommendations to assist local government to improve/enhance disaster risk reduction mainstreaming in their core activities. There has to be alignment between disaster risk reduction and integrated development planning, thereby ensuring that disaster reduction initiatives are holistic and incorporated in the planning, legal, and financial frameworks. Developing and strengthening municipal disaster management capacity and requisite institutional arrangements (interdepartmental committee and the advisory forum for stakeholder engagement) has to be prioritised.