Santam And SAWS Expand Weather Monitoring To Strengthen South Africa’s Disaster Preparedness

A damaged road following heavy rain at the Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga, earlier this year. Image credit: Reuters/Oupa Nkosi

A joint statement said Santam has sponsored the SAWS with the installation of nine automatic weather stations (AWSs) across the country.

This partnership is motivated by data that shows South Africa is experiencing increasingly frequent and severe weather events, with heightened floods, storms and fires, which cause loss of life and billions of rands in damage.

Enhancing preparedness

Early warning systems play a key role in warning people of impending hazards and are therefore not a luxury but cost-effective tools to enhance preparedness, save lives and reduce economic losses.

Despite this, there are still major observational gaps across parts of South Africa.

According to the Santam Group CEO, Tavaziva Madzinga, the strategic partnership with the SAWS will play a critical role in enhancing disaster risk management in the country.

“By strengthening its observation and forecasting capabilities, we are helping to ensure that early warnings are accessible, credible and localised, so that South Africans can act before weather hazards escalate into disasters.

“This collaboration allows us to do more and reach further. By strengthening early warning systems, we are saving lives and helping South Africans avoid preventable loss by building greater resilience to extreme weather,” he said.

Madzinga added that from an insurance perspective, early warnings help reduce losses across households, businesses and the broader economy.

The 2022 floods in KwaZulu-Natal are estimated to have cost over R50bn in damages.

Welcome addition

The SAWS’ acting CEO, Dr Jonas Mphepya, hailed the collaboration as a prime example of public-private partnership.

He said the new AWSs were a welcome addition to the SAWS’ observation network.

“Currently, our network boasts 273 AWSs, 211 automatic rainfall stations, 26 lightning detection network sensors, 25 climate stations and 12 meteorological RADAR systems, among other things.

“In a time of frequent and intensifying severe weather events, the importance of reinforcing our observational infrastructure, which the bedrock of our weather and climate services, cannot be overemphasised,” Mphepya said.

The installations include four AWS units in Limpopo and Mpumalanga piloted during 2021 and 2022, as well as five additional stations that have recently been commissioned in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Gauteng.

These stations are operational and integrated into the SAWS weather observation system network, providing critical weather data.

“The locations of the new stations were identified through a needs-driven process led by the SAWS, focusing on areas with known observational gaps and heightened exposure to disruptive rainfall, flooding and severe weather events.

“The eastern seaboard, stretching from the Eastern Cape through KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, and into north-eastern parts of Limpopo, has experienced repeated episodes of extreme and disruptive rainfall in recent years, while additional gaps were identified in parts of the Western Cape and Gauteng,” the joint statement said.

Beyond infrastructure, the partnership also places strong emphasis on awareness and education. Santam works with municipalities, schools and community organisations to improve understanding of weather warnings and how people should respond to them.

This includes targeted education campaigns, school-based initiatives and community radio programmes in local languages in high-risk areas.