Eastern Cape premier's words are just that- empty promises

EASTERN Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane hit all the right notes during the memorial service in honour of the nearly hundred people that perished during the recent devastating floods in the province. 

He pinned the root cause of the floods to the impact of climate change and indirectly conceded that the government he leads may have been caught napping in its preparation for the floods. 

“There are many lessons we must all learn from this kind of tragedy. However, today I want to highlight the reality of climate change. Therefore, it is no longer enough to react to disasters. We must prepare for them and prevent them where possible,” Mabuyane said.

He courageously warned against those lining up to pocket from the tragedy saying:  “Any funds dedicated to the tragedy will be used prudently to help our people rebuild their lives.”

These words would be easy to believe if they come out of any person, other than the premier.  The difficulty in accepting Mabuyan’s sincerity is informed by recent history.  

For example the province was hit by deadly flooding in 2021, 2022 and in 2023, with damage to infrastructure amounting to billions of rand. 

To now act  as if this is something new to the province is not only disingenuous but disgraceful, and quite frankly undermines the pain that many families are going through.

His  administration had more than enough time to learn from previous incidents to limit the impact of these weather events on people. We doubt there was even a disaster management plan to guide the government’s response. If there was one, we dare the premier and any of his senior officials to produce it. 

Because if there was one, it would not have taken emergency services hours to respond while residents, including the elderly were trapped in flooded houses. The SANDF would have been on standby ready to respond like it has done in other parts of the country, including in the Western Cape where there are wildfires. Where were the divers?

The bottom line is that Mabuyane and his government will wait for another disaster to strike only to respond with empty promises.