Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning:
(1) What are the amounts provided for in the budgets of national departments that are available for the fighting of wildfires in the province over the medium-term framework;
(2) whether the South African National Parks (SANParks) failed to renew its agreement with the Working on Fire teams at the time of the Table Mountain fire in April 2021; if so, what are the relevant details;
(3) whether the Western Cape Government was formally informed of failures, such as the one mentioned in (2) above; if not, to what extent does this have an impact on his Department’s ability to mitigate the damage caused by wildfires?
(1) The National Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s allocation for the Western Cape Working on Fire program amounts to approximately R 56 million for the 2022/23 period. The South African National Parks budget for firefighting in the Western Cape amounts to approximately R 12 million for 2022/23.
(2) No, South African National Parks (SANParks) did not fail to renew its agreement with Working on Fire, details are not available due to pending litigation.
(3) No, the Western Cape Government was never formally informed of any failure to renew any agreement. There is no impact on the ability of the Department to mitigate wildfires.
