Social Development

(a) How many families were affected,

The WCG: DSD is dependent on data received from incident reports issued by the Disaster and Risk Management Centre (DRMC) of the City of Cape Town, regional disaster management centres (for the West Coast, Cape Winelands and Overberg, Central Karoo, and Garden Route), DSD Regional Offices, as well as situation reports issued by the Provincial Disaster Management Centre (PDMC), verbal and written reports by SASSA and NPO partners.

The following feedback is provided, namely:

1. Number of persons affected, based on available information: approximately 77 064 persons (this includes incident reports on severe weather – flooding of informal settlements, as well as residential fires).
2. Number of families affected, based on an average of 4 persons per family: approximately 19 266 families.
3. What support is his Department offering to these affected families,

The WCG: DSD has the following mandate pertaining to social relief, and this mandate was applied:

1. Coordinating and providing psychosocial support services, on request or by referral, to persons, families, and communities affected by disaster events (declared or not declared) and undue hardship cases, including initial emotional support and containment, trauma debriefing support, counseling and/or therapeutic interventions, and aftercare support. No requests for psychosocial report were received for this incident.
2. Coordination of social/humanitarian relief efforts in partnership with non-profit organisations (NPO) partners, such as Gift of the Givers Foundation, Red Cross Society of SA, Community Chest of the Western Cape, Islamic Relief SA, Al-Imdaad Foundation (SA) Trust, Mustadafin Foundation, AfriForum, the Warehouse Trust and Ashrafin Aid, as well as SASSA.
3. Communication with, participation in, and reporting to the Provincial Disaster Management Centre (PDMC), i.e. attending briefing sessions and activated Joint Operation Centre (JOC) meetings, providing detailed reports on humanitarian responses in collaboration with SASSA and NPO partners.
4. What is the cost involved?

The Department provided support and co-ordination work using its existing operational resourcs, and therefore the exact cost involved cannot be calculated.