Are we disabling climate science in southern Africa? : A brief consideration of the draft South African Weather Service Amendment Bill

Abstract

On the 2nd of November, 2011, South Africa’s Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs tabled the draft South African Weather Service Amendment Bill to the National Assembly. After the period for written comment closed, in January 2012, submissions from both individuals and organizations were made to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Water and Environmental Affairs, initiating a period of lively debate in mainstream and social media communities – resulting (in part) in the bill being withdrawn in July 2012. The bill, in it’s original form, included a clause that would effectively impel organizations and individuals to obtain written permission from the South African Weather Service prior to disseminating a ‘severe weather warning’; with proposed sanctions should this not occur. The draft bill had further key implications for access to both climate and air quality data (amongst others) for scientists and partners in South and southern Africa, as well as their international partners. In this commentary article, I propose that legislation such as the draft bill risks creating an environment that disables climate science. Rather, on a continent where concerns regarding vulnerability to climatic hazards are on the increase, we should be supporting a policy environment that truly enables the climate science community. Using the United States experience as a comparison, and existing regional science initiatives in the SADC region as a departure point, the article makes a series of recommendations in this regard, while being sensitive to the original motivations behind the draft bill, as well as it’s current revised form.