Fire Safety ConferenceGold Reef City

23-24 February 2016

Gauteng City RegionTowards developing Gauteng Vision 2030 for

Fire & Rescue ServicesPresented: RG Hendricks – Director: Fire & Rescue Services

Presentation outline

1. Introduction2. Defining a global city3. Defining the Gauteng City Region4. Factors governing the composition and efficiency of Fire & Rescue

Services.5. The problem statement6. Towards developing a GCR Risk Reduction/Prevention Strategy7. A changing Gauteng8. Understanding and managing fire risks within a growing region

1. Position Resources2. Mapping of Prevention Priorities

9. What we plan to do

Introduction• In 2008, for the first time in history, more of the world’s

inhabitants lived in cities than in rural areas.• The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) predicts that the

number of people currently living in cities will rise from 3.6 billion in 2011 to five billion in 2030.

• Reasons for rapid growth:• large cities offer a variety of economic benefits;• they present cultural and social connectivity to their

inhabitants; • they centralize services and increase accessibility to these

services;• they create places of high dynamism and constant change;

Introduction (continued)• 24,04% of South Africa’s population (54.9 m) live in Gauteng.

(That is just more than 13,2 million people, or nearly equal to the entire population living in Zimbabwe (16.2 m).

• Gauteng is followed by KwaZulu-Natal with a population of almost 10.9 million; together amounting to 44% off overall population.

• 4,5 m people live in Johannesburg, 3,1 m in Ekurhuleni and 2,9 m in Tshwane, resulting in 85,90% of all the people in Gauteng living in the three Metro’s.

• To provide a perspective of the size of our Metro’s, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni together houses almost the same number of people as the populations of Lesotho (2.1m), Swaziland (1.1m), Botswana (2m) and Namibia (2.28) put together.

Introduction (continued)• Gauteng is the economic/business hub of South Africa and the Province

contributes 35,21% to the Country’s economy.

• A staggering 75% of all corporate head offices in South Africa are based in Johannesburg.

• That is why more and more people migrate to Gauteng to seek jobs and look for a better quality of life.

• Normal population growth together with urbanisation (people moving to Gauteng) results in approximately 350,000 more people living in Gauteng each year.

Introduction (continued)• Gauteng has evolved into an industrial hub, financial

nerve centre and technological heartbeat of our country, owing to the impact of the mining revolution on SA’s path to industrialisation.

• The size of the Gauteng economy is 1.07 Trillion.

• We also contribute more than 10% to Africa’s GDP.

• The Gauteng Province by land is 1.4% of the country, yet it remains the economic engine of the country.

Defining a Global City

– Be defined independently of formal administrative boundaries;

– Be constituted of a concentrated urban population, with significant size that attract greater volumes of people through in-migration;

– Be spread across a vast, geographical area that is inter-connected in nature;

– Include at least one large metropolitan area; and

– Incorporate a functional economy within the geography, which is able to compete in the global market

GCR population in comparison to other major cities

Population growth

Tshwane’s population

> twice NMB

Clear break between top 5 and

other cities

Source: Calculations by Lynelle John, based on population data fr IHS Global Insight and area sizes fr the Municipal Demarcation Board (2010)

Source: Calculations by Lynelle John, based on population data fr IHS Global Insight and area sizes fr the Municipal Demarcation Board (2010)

People per km2

More densely populated

than at least 3 metros

Ranked 18th on this

list Less than 10 people per km2

Over 2 200 people per

km2

What is the GCR?

• The Gauteng Province is home to over 13.2 m people and is the densest in South Africa, but it remains spatially organised as a sprawling region of geographically distinct towns and cities.

• Its most internationally recognisable cities are Johannesburg and Pretoria, although there are other significant urban centres.

• Many of these are located within the provincial boundary, and many fall outside it.

• Gauteng is the economic powerhouse of South Africa and the broader Southern African Development Community (SADC).

What is the GCR?

• The Gauteng City-Region is an area larger than the Gauteng province and has an undefined boundary.

• It is not physically or politically delineated but encapsulates towns and cities near to Gauteng that are part of its wider urban network – connected by flows of raw materials and resources, energy, people, money and communications.

• This wider Gauteng City-region generates almost 45% of national GDP (OECD 2011) and has a population close to 16, 8 million people when calculated as a 175km radius around Johannesburg. (Census 2011 SAL)

What is the GCR?

Provincial GDP

KEY ECONOMIC SECTORS OF THE GCR

FIVE CORRIDORS OF THE GAUTENG CITY REGION

CENTRAL CORRIDOR: JOBURG• It is the hub of finance and ICT industries• It also has a strong retail, services and

pharmaceutical sectors • Has experienced significant deindustrialisation owing

to the decline of the mining and related industries • Our interventions in this Corridor include:

– Strengthening investment in ICT and roll out of broadband

– Working with the City of Joburg to revitalise the Joburg inner-city. Over the next four years we will mobilise R 10 billion towards revitalising the Joburg inner City

– Supporting he city’s bid to be the host of the regional headquarters of the BRICS Development Bank

– Reviving old townships such as Kliptown and Alexandra

EASTERN CORRIDOR: EKURHULENI• It is the manufacturing, logistics and transport hub industries and

the main anchor of the Aerotropolis (Airport economy) of the GCR;

• Also experienced significant deindustrialisation following the decline of the manufacturing sector

• Our interventions in this Corridor include;– Building an Aerotropolis around O.R. Tambo

International Airport– This will be supported by the O.R Tambo IDZ, the

main anchor being the jewellery manufacturing precinct

– Strengthening the Corridor as a logistics hub through the Tambo-Springs logistics hub development (R 7, 5 billion investment)

– Investment by PRASA in Nigel to build new locomotives (R 123 billion investment)

– Roll out of BRT by 2016 ( R 500 million investment)

NORTHERN CORRIDOR: TSHWANE• It is our nation’s administrative capital.• Going forward, this will be the hub of the automotive sector,

research, development, innovation and the knowledge-based economy

• Our interventions in this corridor include– Strengthening our support to the automotive industry

through the AIDC– Working towards the launch of an Auto City (R 50

billion investment) – Supporting R&D and the knowledge based industries

through the Innovation Hub– Inner City revitalisation and the development of a new

economic node in Centurion– Investing in a R525 million Business Process

Outsourcing Park in Hammanskraal – Roll out of free Wi-Fi

WESTERN CORRIDOR: WEST RAND•Was primarily a mining economy which has experienced serious decline. •A new diverse economy will be created around tourism anchored around the Maropeng Cradle of Humankind World heritage Site , agriculture and agro-processing the Lanseria Airport City and renewable energy industries;•Specific interventions include

– Enhancing the region’s horticulture potential– Supporting especially black farmer in the agro-processing

industry – Building of a solar farm and plant working together with the

University of Johannesburg– Unlocking further tourism potential of the Cradle of

Humankind– Launch of the Lanseria Airport City as a new economic node

and an extension of our Aerotropolis. This is an injection of R 10 billion over the next 10 years

SOUTHERN CORRIDOR: SEDIBENG• Encompasses the Sedibeng District whose economy

was largely based on the steel industry which has been in decline with major negative effects on the region’s economy

• Going forward we are diversifying the economy of the region to focus on tourism, agro-processing and agriculture

• Sod turning for the Vaal River City Development (worth between R7 and R 11 billion). It will bring a much needed boost to the economy of the region

• We want to position Sedibeng as the food basket of the Gauteng City Region

• Increased tourism potential from the Vaal River, Vaal Marina and the Suikerbosrand Game Reserve.

Factors governing the composition and efficiency of Fire & Rescue Services.

1. Demand Vs Supply: • Each community is composed of a unique mix of natural,

industrial, transportation and other Risks (a mix of Hazard and Vulnerabilities).

• Risks produce emergency Events (e.g.: fires, accidents, explosions, structural collapse, etc.).

• Events exact a Response that, in turn, requires Capacity to be

in place. • Each Event – by type or location – will demand a different

mix of activities performed by People with Equipment operatingin the framework of Plans and Guidelines.

Factors governing the composition and efficiency of Fire & Rescue Services.

2. Man: Machine Relationship: Rescue and Fire Suppression operations are characterised by a Man: Machine relationship, i.e. responders, equipment and materials form a unit that performs the required duties safely and effectively. Without the one the other is useless. The relationship between man and machine must be in balance in both quantity and quality.

Quality and Quantity: The right tools for the job

Factors governing the composition and efficiency of Fire & Rescue Services.

3. Training: Workforce and management development plays a particularly important role in the Fire & Rescue community; its value being clearly demonstrated when considering the diverse subject range those emergency response personnel has to conquer in order to perform their duties safely and efficiently.

4. Plans & Procedures: Operational activities of Fire & Rescue services are guided through policy instruments, specifically Plans (by incident type or risk type) and Standards Operating Procedures (SOP’s).

5. Occupational Health & Safety: Employers responsibility towards its workforces’ welfare in a conventional workplace is well documented through a range of statutes.

The problem statement

• The majority of the Province’s inhabitants live in urban areas, and according to all prognoses, population in cities will continue to grow in the coming decades;

• In the context of urban safety management: the GCR can be both the most secure and the most dangerous place to be when disaster strikes.

• Developing appropriate mechanisms to prepare for and cope with complexities of the GCR will, in the future, be a key aspect of security policy-making.

• The GCR should be geared to improve the capacity to predict new or unforeseen risk by diversifying capabilities for risk assessment and improving inter-agency collaborations.

• In addition the GCR must adopt new approaches to urban safety that are sufficiently flexible to adapt to a changing risk environment and to safeguard urban security.

The problem statement

• GCR populations experience many chronic, extensive risks associated with marginal living conditions and poor service delivery, from poor sanitation and disease to dwelling fires, seasonal flooding and crime and violence .

• GCR populations will increasingly face a range of emerging risks including communal violence and unrest, water scarcity, acid mine drainage and food insecurity, with inevitable Climate Change likely to drive and exacerbate many problems.

• Given the prospect of increasing risk, there is an urgent need to reduce the vulnerability and increase the resilience of GCR towns and cities. It is not enough simply to respond to and manage disasters, we must proactively seek to address risk.

• This requires the integration of risk reduction into planning processes, including land-use planning and management, water resource management, infrastructural developments and building design and construction.

The importance of prevention and risk reduction on the GCR agenda

• Disasters are costly, both economically and in terms of human losses

• Looking just at economic costs, analysis of just eight severe weather events in one province alone between 2003 and 2008 resulted in losses to government and the private sector of R 2.5 billion

• Risk reduction may be expensive in the short-term, but the benefits substantially outweigh these costs in the long-term.

The cost of International Disasters

Country No. of people affected (millions)

No. of disasters

Economic costs (US$bn)

China 1321.4 311 205 654 128

India 602.9 204 25 88 285

Bangladesh 73.2 90 5 884 000

Philippines 52.9 160 2 543 118

Thailand 43.6 57 2 433 613

Pakistan 32.8 74 17 134 648

Ethiopia 29.2 48 9 400

Vietnam 21.8 89 5 759 905

United States 20.7 257 353 414 290

South Africa 15.3 42 866 305

Financial costs of disasters (top 10 countries affected by disasters, 2000-2010)

Towards developing a GCR Risk Reduction/Prevention Strategy

• It is essential to de-silo risk reduction and fire prevention strategies

• Addressing risk within GCR context requires a stronger emphasis on prevention.

• Urban risk concerns must be incorporated into short, medium and long-term planning across sectors.

• It is vital to draw and promote the linkages between risk reduction and sectoral concerns.

A changing Gauteng• In preparing our strategies we are mindful of how Gauteng will

change over the coming years. • We cannot be sure how the future will look, but we are using

information available to guide and inform our thinking and to test relationships between those changes and our current understanding of the associated risks.

• We are also considering the impact of predicted climate change and what action we will be taking to respond to a changing climate.

• We can reasonably expect to deal with more grass and open land fires during the autumn/winter (anticipating increased temperatures and less rainfall) and more flooding in the summer (anticipating increased rainfall).

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A changing Gauteng• Gauteng City Region (GCR), with over 16 million people, is the

largest and richest region in the country, contributing appr 45% of the national Domestic Product (GDP) (Stats SA, 2011).

• Despite its weight, the Gauteng city-region’s economy presents many challenges.

– very high unemployment levels; – unbalanced growth, in the sense that jobs that are being

created are often not matched to the skills that workers currently possess;

– unequal spatial access to economic opportunities; – a weak ‘culture of entrepreneurship’; and – the need to ensure that future growth is ‘green growth’ to

ensure the region’s long-term sustainability.31

A changing Gauteng• Rapid population growth due to in-migration, concentrated in a few

locations, has resulted in strong spatial polarisation, urban sprawl and tracts of under-utilised land between main urban centres. This pattern of development not only reinforces existing inequalities but generates high economic and environmental costs.

• GCR places greater emphasis on joint planning, coordination, and collaboration across municipal borders to realise efficiency gains and improve the performance of Gauteng’s economy.

• This therefore calls for a need to strengthen interdepartmental and inter-sphere cooperation to realise a GCR vision of seamless development.

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Understanding and managing risks• When we talk about risk, we mean many things.

• We mean the incidents that happen every day to which we send fire engines.

• We mean the incidents that don’t happen, but which we want to be prepared for should the worst occur (for example in response to terrorism).

• We mean the likelihood of people and places experiencing emergencies and the harm and damage that can and may be caused.

• We mean the risk of attending non-emergency incidents and incidents that we aren’t required to attend and the effects that has on our prevention work and the associated risk to our firefighters and the public.

• And we mean many more things as well.

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Understanding and managing risks• We need to understand the nature of the risk and its impact within the

GCR.

• We need to know who will experience the worst of the effects and what the impact to society and GCR infrastructure will be.

• We must try to understand how that risk will change in the future and

most importantly we look at how we will respond and what we can do to prevent those risks from ever happening.

• When we manage risk it shouldn’t always mean we will focus all our resources at the things that happen most often.

• Sometimes we will have to allocate resources because the impact,

should an event occur, is so severe; preparedness against terrorism or natural disasters are examples.

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Understanding and managing risks• At other times we will focus on those things that occur the most,

knowing that if we can reduce them, we will free up time to spend on higher priorities;

• And when we try to prevent incidents from occurring (our community and regulatory safety work) we will focus our resources where we think they will have the most impact; for example our work to deliver home fire safety visits is targeted in areas where fires are most likely to occur and not just in areas where they have happened before.

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Positioning of resources• Delivery of a Fire Service should move from being locally directed

to a GCR-wide service and we should investigate the re-allocation of GCR fleet of emergency response vehicles where they can offer the best protection to GCR as a whole.

• Many people think that that it is their local fire station that provides them with all their emergency cover. It is true that it is the geographic location of a fire station that helps us to maintain our fast response times but for many incidents, where more than one fire engine is needed, vehicles come from a number of surrounding stations are responded.

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Positioning of resources• In recent discussions with Chief Fire Officers their Asset

Management Plan describes their intentions for the location and regeneration of fire stations up to 5-10 years from now.

• This is based on upon their modelling work which has identified

the best locations for fire stations (and the number of vehicles they need to accommodate).

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Mapping of Prevention Priorities• To prepare for delivery of an effective Fire Service within the GCR

we need to map out the whole of our service by looking at the numbers and different types of incidents we attend and the number of casualties they cause.

• We can then consider what, if anything, we could do, or want to do, to prevent them.

• Our approach to prevention should be to coordinate the delivery of a range of awareness campaigns and initiatives with the intention that their combined effects will bring about a reduction in incidents.

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What we plan to doFoundation and stabilization phase (2014-2019)

• The Provincial Fire & Rescue Services (P: F&RS) initiated its strategic planning process in order to set goals and priorities for its future and in the process also aligned the Strategic Plan with the Foundation and Stabilization Phase of the Department’s Repositioning Strategy within the Gauteng City Region.

• This Strategic Plan also expresses the P: F&RS’s vision to coordinate the implementation of programmes and initiatives within Gauteng Fire & Rescue services to improve the safety of communities and visitors to the Gauteng City Region.

• Key to this plan is a renewed focus on public awareness as well as performance of regulatory fire safety work; need to send fewer fire engines to incidents.

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What we plan to doGrowth Phase (2019-2024)

• The Growth Phase (2019-2024) will focus on the enhancement and consolidation of the structures and systems that would have been created in the previous (Foundation and Stabilization) phase.

• It is anticipated that major lessons will be learnt during the first phase, and it is therefore from these lessons that the Growth Phase will ensure necessary revisions of those systems and structures that have not worked well, and bring improvements to those that warrant it.

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What we plan to doMaturity Phase (2024-2030)

• The Maturity Phase coincides with the full implementation of the Ten (10) Pillar Programme and the 2030 National Development Plan of the country.

• During this phase, we must focus on concluding and reviewing the effectiveness of all our programmes that were introduced during the first two phases.

• Assuming that the province shall have achieved the wall-to-wall metro system of local government, support programmes for the metropolitan municipalities will focus on key economic aspects and ensuring the re-industrialization of Gauteng city-region.

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In summary

• Premier David Makhura announced the Ten Pillar Programme of Transformation, Modernization and Re-industrialization (TMR) at his inaugural State of the Province Address (SoPA) on 27 June 2014.

• It is business unusual for Gauteng; change is painful, but inevitable

• The landscape is different from other Province; both politically and geographically; wall to wall metros by 2030.

• TMR programmes aimed not just at the Gauteng Provincial Government but at the Gauteng City Region (GCR) as a whole.

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In summary

• With globalization has come an increase in the consequences of fires and disasters in cities;

• Provincial Fire & Rescue Services (P: F&RS) MUST be the change leader, whilst adapting in order to remain relevant.

• They need to shape a vision to help steer the change effort and develop strategic initiatives to achieve that vision – Strategic Plan.

• There is a strong need for a more sustainable and inclusive conception of mitigation of fire risks within GCR context.

• Addressing risk within GCR context requires a stronger emphasis on prevention.

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The beginning of something great

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