There is a particular kind of bureaucratic language that emerges in the aftermath of a disaster. Officials speak of essential amenities, critical infrastructure and economic assets requiring urgent intervention. They tour affected areas in convoys, wearing reflective vests and expressions of practised concern.
Then they return to their offices to determine which losses are deemed catastrophic enough to warrant immediate, dedicated access to resources and support. Last month, as South Africa’s Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces reeled from floods that killed at least 37 people, that machinery shifted into gear. Since the middle of December relentless rainfall battered the region, transforming rivers into torrents and roads into waterways.
On January 19, South Africa declared a national disaster, a classification that unlocks emergency funding and coordinates multi-agency response across government structures. President Cyril Ramaphosa toured flood-stricken communities in Mbaula village, Mopani District, where 38 houses were completely swept away. The floods have revealed the fragility of rural infrastructure and the vulnerability of communities living in low-lying areas.
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In Mbaula village, outside Giyani, more than 40 families were sleeping on church floors. Those displaced include elderly people, children and persons with disabilities. These are the people with the least capacity to flee or recover.
More than 2,600 homes were damaged or destroyed in Limpopo alone, while 1,000 homes were affected in Mpumalanga. The floods caused an estimated R4.4bn in damages to Limpopo’s provincial infrastructure. Amid this tragedy and devastation, the most rapid and coherent response has been devoted to rebuilding economic infrastructure rather than providing relief to local communities.
On January 18, forestry, fisheries & the environment minister Willie Aucamp announced the formation of the Kruger Relief Fund to rebuild park infrastructure after an aerial assessment of flood damage to Kruger National Park. The fund would be managed by independent auditors and open to corporate donations. What went unannounced was any comparable mechanism for families sleeping on church floors.
No fund for communities where 37 people had died. Infrastructure for tourism, it seems, outranked shelter for displaced families. It does not to diminish the economic importance of Kruger National Park to note the disparities in the response to this tragedy.
Tourism contributes to jobs, foreign exchange and regional development. But when infrastructure for wildlife viewing receives dedicated funding mechanisms before families receive adequate shelter, a hierarchy of value is revealed. Families in Mbaula village received food parcels and were promised school uniforms and shoes for when schools reopened.
They were told officials would work with traditional leaders to identify safer land for relocation. But there is no “Mbaula Relief Fund”, no dedicated corporate fundraising mechanism. In 2022, South Africa’s presidential climate commission found that despite strong commitments to tackle climate change, progress was slow due to “insufficient finance, incoherent policies and weak governance structures”.
The Limpopo and Mpumalanga floods have exposed precisely these failures, and shown that when finances are mobilised, they flow first to economic infrastructure rather than human security. A 2024 study warned that climate change in South Africa will bring cascading effects: reduced incomes; food and water insecurity; infrastructure collapse; widening inequality; and worsened gender-based violence. Research from other regions has likewise linked rising temperatures with increased gender-based violence.
The rising number of climate disasters around the world is a human rights crisis whose effects are disproportionately weathered by women The rising number of climate disasters around the world is a human rights crisis whose effects are disproportionately weathered by women. During times of resource scarcity following disasters such as the January floods, women and girls are more likely to be coerced into sexual abuse in exchange for goods or services. Women must walk increasingly longer distances to find potable water and food, making them vulnerable to sexual assault.
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