» Interactions with our stakeholders

SUPPLIERS AND SERVICE PROVIDERS

We engage with suppliers and service providers continuously on a range of products and services, initially through contract/agreement negotiation, and subsequently during the order and supply process. During 2020, cash flow was a big issue and discussions facilitated staged payments or payments in manageable tranches. We are also engaging suppliers on B-BBEE scoring to facilitate our contracting with local government. We are conscious of our contribution in local economies, as well as the importance of our ability to sustain cash flows to suppliers to ensure their sustainability.

GENERAL PUBLIC AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES

Our rescue bases play an important role in local communities as a service. The bases are also an integral part of the social context of the community and help communities give back/pay forward through volunteerism. Bases are instantly recognisable and display current and relevant information on emergency access, emergency numbers, for example.

Our role in a public sense is one of advocacy and communication on water safety, and we do this through direct local communication or communication through a range of media, with specific messaging around risks or issues. Our rip current advocacy is a good example.

DONORS

Our donors are key to our sustainability. We endeavour to contact our donors personally every year and we stay in contact to share our news through monthly newsletters and copies of our magazine. We recognise our donors through anniversary milestones, providing annual certificates of acknowledgement and other member benefits in their capacity as ‘shore crew’.

INDUSTRY SECTORS

We provide a safety net to many industry sectors like tourism, shipping, recreational sport, fishing and events. We communicate directly with businesses in each sector, either individually or through associations, to raise awareness and then get feedback on the experience of our services. Most recipients become donors, an important conversion for us.

GOVERNMENT

The CEO of the NSRI sits on the South African Search and Rescue Organisation (SASAR) Executive Committee and provides direct input to the Department of Transport (DoT) through this committee. We work internally to advocate resources for maritime rescue within DoT, not with much success so far unfortunately. The committee does provide opportunity to communicate with national representatives of rescue agencies, but often the level of representation has no decision-making authority and action from these meetings is minimal.

At a Provincial Government level, we engage at Disaster Management Committee level, to ensure coordination with emergency regional services. The SASAR regional meeting has unfortunately not been well supported and so coordination is not at an acceptable level.

We engage with local government on a municipality-by-municipality basis to discuss drowning prevention and lifeguarding opportunities and services. This did result in us delivering lifeguarding services on 21 beaches in 2020. Some municipalities fund educators in their geographic precincts to facilitate water safety awareness, but there is a huge need to expand these activities to reach our objectives.

PEER GROUPS AND ASSOCIATIONS

Interaction with peer emergency services is largely through operational contact. Meetings with collective or individual service providers occur locally, either as scheduled meetings, or through incident debriefs.

There is no current NPO/NPC structure that facilitates discussions across a range of charities and the charity sector is not formally represented to government. There is a gap and opportunity to lead and create such structure.

CONSERVATION AGENCIES

Our services are directly intertwined with conservation agencies, notably the Whale Disentanglement Network, Two Oceans Aquarium, uShaka Marine World and the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB). There are frequent engagements and combined operations that ensure that our turtle, bird and whale work continue. We believe our conservation efforts create greater geographic awareness because our reach is greater than some smaller agencies.