Belle, JohanesMazibuko, Bafana Alfred2022-03-112022-03-112020http://hdl.handle.net/11660/11520Problem statement: The City of Ekurhuleni is known for its extreme precipitation events which, sometimes, lead to late afternoon thunderstorms and frequent nature related disasters. From 2010 to 2016, the city declared four states of disasters because of climate hazards such as floods, tornado or hailstorm. Although the city had a number of extreme weather events and disaster declarations, the literature review revealed insufficient research regarding the level of the city’s disaster preparedness to respond to major emergency incidents and /or disasters related to climate change. The insufficient information on the city’s disaster preparedness meant that the city could not determine its level of preparedness for disasters, hence the intention of this study. Purpose: The primary aim of this study was to examine the City of Ekurhuleni disaster preparedness, using the 16 November 2015 climate related hailstorm disaster in the city, from the views of the ward committee members and the municipal government officials. The four objectives that were evaluated to determine the primary objective were the disaster planning regime, the early warning systems, municipal response mechanism and public education and training programme. Methods: The methodology that was employed in the study was a mixed research method. The sample of the study consisted of 78 ward committee members from eight (8) customer care centre affected by the 2015 hailstorm disaster and 68 City of Ekurhuleni’s local government officials that might have responded to the same disaster. Questionnaires were administered to 97 participants and 49 participants were earmarked for interviews to collect data. The data was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) with the assistance of an experienced researcher. Findings: The study findings after triangulation were as follows: • The community vulnerability assessment tool was not being used to plan for disaster preparedness. • Few households in the communities’ have households’ disaster preparedness plans; the majority does not have any plans in place. • The study showed that to some extent the city institutes disaster preparedness planning for their area of responsibility. • The early warning system in the city to a greater degree was confirmed to be in existence for the communities. • The implementation of the response mechanisms of disaster and emergency response in city is balanced. • The city’s disaster and emergency public education and training programmes in the communities had a limited impact for disaster preparedness. Recommendations: The main recommendations of the study based on the four objectives were as follows: (i) Disaster Planning Regime • The city should involve the internal departments and other stakeholders through the Municipal Advisory Forum and the communities through the process of the Integrated Development Plans to improve on the usage of the disaster community vulnerability assessment to prepare for disasters. • The Disaster Management Service in the city should raise the awareness on this critical aspect of disaster preparedness through communicating community risk and possible mitigation strategies to protect themselves. • The city has to broaden their municipal planning for disaster preparedness similar to the use of the community vulnerability assessment which was stated as the involvement of the internal departments and other stakeholders’ through the Municipal Advisory Forum and the communities through the process of the Integrated Development Plans. (ii) Early Warning System • The city can upgrade and maintain the elements of the early warning strategy to increase the spread of coverage for this system to strengthen disasters preparedness. (iii) Municipal Response Mechanism • The response mechanisms of the city should be improved through media communication that includes the communication of community’s risks and available resources and mechanisms in the city to respond to dominant disaster hazards. (iv) Public Education and Training Programme • Refining programmes by including ward committees and non-governmental organisations as partners in the planning and implementation. Conclusion: The implication of the study’s’ findings was that it confirmed the conclusion that the City of Ekurhuleni had some components of disaster preparedness that existed though not at the required level to enable it to respond effectively to major emergency incidents and /or disasters. Therefore, it might be required for the city to have a deliberate strategy to develop a disaster preparedness plan to be able to response to their challenges of extreme weather incidents and disasters.enDissertation (M. Disaster Management (Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa))--University of the Free State, 2020Disaster ManagementThe City of Ekurhuleni is knownDissertationUniversity of the Free State