Santam, Africa's largest general insurer, and the South African Weather Service (SAWS) have formed a partnership aimed at strengthening the country's early warning and forecasting capabilities and to ensure communities are better prepared to deal with severe weather-related occurrences and disasters.
Santam has sponsored the SAWS with the installation of nine automatic weather stations (AWSs), across the country.
The partnership has been spurred on 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 damages, says Santam in a statement. 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.
Mr Tavaziva Madzinga, the Santam Group CEO, said the strategic partnership with the SAWS will play a critical role in enhancing disaster risk management in the country.
“The SAWS is the only entity mandated to issue severe weather-related warnings over South Africa. 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,” he said.
Mr Madzinga added that from an insurance perspective, early warnings help reduce losses across households, businesses and the broader economy. Disasters are happening more often and are costing more. Available data indicates that annual disaster costs have grown to around $180–200bn between 2001 and 2020, up from $70–$80bn, from the two previous decades (i.e. 1970 – 2000).
“Simply put, early warning enables early action. If people delay travel, secure property, move vehicles or protect agricultural assets based on credible early warnings, exposure is reduced and losses are minimised. That’s shared value for communities, insurers and society as a whole,” he said.
SAWS’ Acting CEO, Dr Jonas Mphepya, said, “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.”
Santam and the SAWS are formalising the partnership to create a structured platform for future investments in weather observation infrastructure, awareness initiatives and capacity-building to support the SAWS in executing its national and international responsibilities.
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.