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ABSTRACT
Two-way communication and strong relationships between government and affected communities are necessary to enhance the latter's resilience to disaster risks. The Tlokwe City Council (TCC) in the North-West province, South Africa, is facing a dolomite and sinkhole disaster risk that threatens the safety of several residential areas, including informal settlements. A dolomite disaster risk reduction (DRR) management system such as the TCC Dolomite Management Desk (DMD) can be used to facilitate two-way communication and strong relationships between government and the affected communities. Semi-structured interviews with two different groups of people were conducted and the responses evaluated to determine in what way DRR communication via the Tlokwe DMD served to establish strong relationships between the TCC and the affected community. It was found that the two groups of interviewees had contradictory views on the risk communication and quality of relationships as facilitated by the Tlokwe DMD. These views illuminated the predicament of communicating about the dolomite and sinkhole risk. The Tlokwe DMD is unique in South Africa and its ability to enable communication and strong government–community relationships needs to be developed further. Recommendations are made in this regard.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. In this article, the terms ‘government’ or ‘authorities’ refer to departments and agencies at all levels of government, especially those associated with but not limited to local city councils.
2. In this respect, ‘vulnerability’ refers to a group's lack of (or inadequate) capacity, whereas resilience refers to their capacity to cope, resist and recover from a disaster or adverse condition (Bankoff, Citation2004, p. 32; Hewitt, Citation1997, p. 27). Capacity thus indicates people's potential to deal with disaster risks (Hewitt, Citation1997, p. 141). Successful strategies aimed at to reducing the magnitude of a disaster risk increase people's resilience (Bankoff, Citation2004, p. 32). Vulnerability is therefore determined by people's capacity to cope with disasters, and this capacity is therefore a measure of resilience.
3. According to Twigg (Citation2007, p. 6), DRR is generally understood to mean the broad development and application of policies, strategies and practices aimed at minimising vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout society. DRR involves identifying, assessing and reducing the risk of disasters. Its function is specifically to reduce socio-economic vulnerability to disasters and also to deal with the environmental and other hazards that trigger these disasters.
4. The term ‘stakeholders' refers to people or organisations that are affected by the decisions and actions of an organisation and whose decisions and actions affect it in turn (Grunig & Repper, Citation1992, p. 125; Steyn & Puth, Citation2000, p. 5).
5. The Tlokwe City Council was previously known as the Tlokwe Local Municipality.
6. No record currently exists (November 2015) for the distribution of sinkholes and subsidences in the Tlokwe Local Municipality, according to the national ground movement databank managed by the Council for Geoscience, but the occurrence of ground movement events are known in these areas. Richardson (Citation2013) and Oosthuizen (Citation2013) compiled databanks and statistical analysis of the distribution of sinkholes and subsidences across the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Richardson (Citation2013) states the rate of sinkhole formation across the Merafong Local Municipal area (which exhibits similar geological conditions as that of the Tlokwe Local Municipalities) to be 0.055 sinkholes per km2 per annum, as determined using statistical data of 1195 events over 27 years across a total of 493 km2 of dolomite land. This translates to between 0.4 and 4.17 events per km2 per annum in non-dewatered groundwater compartments, and between 0.4 and 7.3 per km2 per annum in dewatered groundwater compartments. The statistical analysis of sinkholes and subsidences revealed that 34% of sinkholes have diameters falling in the ‘large' category (i.e. 5–15 m diameter) and 32% falling in the ‘very large' category (i.e. >15 m diameter). The remainder of the sinkholes has diameters of less than 5 m. Half of the sinkholes in the Merafong Local Municipality have depths of between 1 and 5 m, with 24% being between 5 and 15 m deep, and 5% having measured depths in excess of 15-m deep.
7. Ward councillors are members of the ruling political party and are elected to represent a particular area and its residents on the TCC. For many ward councillors, this is their only occupation, and therefore their loyalty to the ANC might compromise the best interests of the residents they represent as political motives could interfere with their approach.
8. The affected areas are the residential locations where black, coloured and Indian residents were living during the apartheid era. Many of the current residents have been forcefully removed from other areas to live in Ikageng, Promosa and Mohadin. Geological tests were conducted in 1969 to establish the presence of dolomite; while it was affirmed that dolomite was present, it was stable at the time. According to Dr Stephan Pretorius, the CEO of AGES, the situation has changed because ‘the safety of dolomite depends on its inherent nature – whether it is solid or whether it has dissolved. Factors like boreholes, ponds and aging infrastructure increase the risk of water leaking into the stable dolomite, resulting in weaknesses and instability’ (Botha, Citation2012).