By Moses Magadza in Durban, South Africa

South Africa’s Minister of Human Settlements, Honourable Thembi Simelane, MP, has challenged lawmakers across the SADC region to confront the climate crisis with urgency, unity and bold legislative action.

She made the call during a symposium of the 58th Plenary Assembly of the SADC Parliamentary Forum. The Parliament of South Africa was hosting the Plenary, which is the highest decision-making body of the Forum.

Addressing delegates who included Speakers and Members of Parliament from 14 of the 15 SADC countries, Minister Simelane warned that climate change has become “a developmental crisis, a human settlements crisis, a socio-economic and governance crisis, and increasingly, a human security crisis.”

She stressed that the scale and speed of current climate impacts demanded a decisive shift in how Parliaments legislate, fund and oversee national responses.

She recalled recent severe weather in KwaZulu-Natal and reminded the gathering that Durban and its surrounding districts are living evidence of the escalating threat of climate change.

“Recent years have shown us that storms are becoming more violent, droughts more severe, floods more destructive, and heatwaves more deadly,” she said adding, “Communities have been repeatedly displaced, homes swept away, and public infrastructure damaged.”

A few days before her address, the Umshwathi Local Municipality suffered fresh losses as severe floods displaced families, an example minister Simelane described as “a devastating illustration of how climate change is threatening development gains, deepening historical inequalities and undermining the right to adequate housing.”

She emphasised that climate impacts do not respect borders and are affecting multiple SADC countries simultaneously.

“No single country can address this challenge alone,” she warned.

Minister Simelane bemoaned the gendered burden of climate impacts and called for urgent reform to include women and youth in all climate decision-making arenas.

“Climate change is not gender neutral… Women are disproportionately exposed, disproportionately impacted, and disproportionately responsible for absorbing the shocks,” she noted.

Despite this, she added, they “remain at the margins of climate decision-making. That must change.”

She highlighted that young people inherit the consequences of decisions they did not make, yet are also “Africa’s greatest demographic asset… the most powerful drivers of innovation, resilience, and adaptation.”

She outlined South Africa’s Climate Change Response Strategy for Human Settlements and presented three strategic pillars she believes are applicable across SADC.

They include settling communities safely by avoiding high-risk zones such as floodplains, unstable slopes, wetlands, and coastal storm-surge areas, and said this is the “first and most fundamental line of defence.”

Upgrading vulnerable settlements already at risk is another priority. In this regard, she stressed the need to upgrade informal settlements where feasible, strengthening water, sanitation and electricity systems, and deploying nature-based solutions such as wetlands, green buffers and urban greening.

“No community should remain invisible to policy simply because they are poor,” she asserted.

The strategy also includes building climate-resilient infrastructure and embracing new norms, standards and typologies that reflect emerging climate realities, including the uptake of Innovative Building Technologies (IBTs) that are durable and climate-adaptive.

Minister Simelane enjoined Parliaments to rise to the challenge as architects of a safer, climate-resilient Southern Africa.

“Parliaments shape the laws, budgets, oversight mechanisms and standards that determine whether our region is prepared or unprepared for the future,” she said.

She challenged MPs to ensure that land-use planning laws integrate climate risk; infrastructure norms reflect future climate realities; oversight compels municipal preparedness and early-warning systems; climate finance reaches vulnerable communities; and legislation aligns with national and regional climate frameworks.

She called for “real-time data sharing, predictive modelling, coordinated evacuation efforts and early-warning alerts that cover multiple countries,” given that “disasters move across borders, so information must too.”

Noting that the region is “mid-way in what is a decisive decade,” Minister Simelane urged delegates to view climate change not only as a threat but also as an opportunity.

“The question before us is simple: Will we build a region that waits for disasters to strike, or a region that acts before disaster becomes inevitable?” she asked.

She shared a vision of a future where “cities and towns are resilient, safe, and inclusive, women and youth lead resilience initiatives, infrastructure is strong, smart, and climate-ready and communities live in dignity, not in danger.”

She urged the SADC PF to respond to current and emerging events.

“Let us embrace this moment not as a threat, but as an opportunity to reshape our communities, to strengthen our democracies, and to build a region that thrives in the face of climate change,” she said.

She said South Africa was ready to collaborate with MPs, governments, and partners across the region to secure a climate-resilient future for Southern African citizens.

-Moses Magadza is the Media and Communications Manager at the SADC Parliamentary Forum.