To fulfil the requirements of the Disaster Management Act 2002 as promulgated on 15 January 2003, the Provincial Government Western Cape (PGWC) acquired a disaster management software programme (the tender was awarded to Africon Engineering International), which is in the process to be rolled out to all municipalities, Provincial Departments, South African National Defence Force and South African Police Services. The disaster management software programme will provide a mechanism whereby all applicable organisations will forward information to the Sub-directorate Disaster Management, which in turn will then co-ordinate the combined database as required for the establishment of the Provincial Disaster Management Centre.

The software programme (GEMC3) can escalate an incident from a municipality to the next level of governance and has the capability to activate the relevant disaster management plan.

Furthermore the system has the following capabilities:

• Strong mapping and live vehicle and resource tracking capability.
• Live video feed.
• Log the impact of a disaster.
• Create step-by-step audit trail of who has done what, when, as the disaster intervention is taking place.
• Produce SITREP's for National Disaster Management Centre.

One of the issues that have to be contended with is the connectivity between the municipalities and SITA's Openet Wide Area Network. Only once this connectivity has been established can the installation commence.

The software programme has been used in several instances, namely:

Grabouw Informal Settlement Fire
Numerous shacks were destroyed by fire at the Grabouw informal settlement in the Boland on Sunday 23 September 2002 and hundreds of people were left homeless.

The 2003 Cricket World Cup
The 2003 Cricket World Cup (CWC) was held in South Africa and participating teams competed on a number of cricket pitches across South Africa. Some 20-odd games were played at venues in the Western Cape, namely:

• The Newlands Cricket Stadium in Cape Town
• The Boland Cricket Stadium in Paarl

The CWC organisers went to great lengths to ensure the safety of the cricketers, the spectators and visiting dignitaries. The organisers achieved this by preparing substantial disaster management plans for both cricket stadiums.

The 2003 and 2004 Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour:
The negative publicity of the 2002 Cycle Tour raised some concerns and the Race Organisers approached the PGWC for help. The PGWC agreed to assist the Race Organisers.

• Provincial EMS Ambulances were made available to the Organisers
• DMIMS was made available to the Race Organisers
• EMS staff members assisted the Race Organisers with, incident management; call taking and registration of incidents in the DMIMS; dispatching of resources to incidents.

Montagu Floods of March 2003:
During March 2003 a cut-off low developed over the mountains in the Boland. As the cut-off low deepened a weather situation developed that caused extremely heavy rainfall to occur across the entire Southern Cape region. Because of the flood damage caused, the State President declared the region as a national disaster area.