Dissecting the myths and realities of disasters using the April 2022 KwaZulu Natal floods in South Africa

The growing menace of climate change means climate-related disasters are poised to increase in frequency, intensity and impact in South Africa. As it stands, climate change accounts for multifarious hydrometeorological hazards that in most cases escalate into disasters due to exposure, vulnerability, and lack of preparedness. In most cases, disasters are perpetuated by weak institutions, bad governance, and a lack of adaptive capacity among at-risk populations. This scoping review aimed to dissect the myths and realities surrounding disasters using the 2022 Kwa-Zulu Natal floods in South Africa as a case study. The objective of the study was to establish how disasters are framed within the scholarship landscape with reference to the KZN floods. A scoping review using the Arksey and O’Malley framework was used to collect data from academic and grey literature. The findings reveal that weak government and institutional response, failure to address climate change-related hazards, unmitigated systematic risks, failure to meet the information needs of at-risk communities, and failure to address socioeconomic vulnerabilities emerged among the key drivers of the KZN flood disaster. These factors affirm that the disaster was not natural but a product of human acts of commission and omission. The study concludes that the KZN floods, which transitioned into a disaster, were avoidable on many fronts. Therefore, framing it as a natural occurrence signals a lack of pedagogical understanding of the genealogy of disasters. The study recommends a paradigm shift from framing disasters as natural, as this shrugs off human responsibility in averting disasters while riding on the false pretext that they are natural occurrences.