There’s a storm rapidly brewing over a very contentious amendment to the South African Weather Service Bill. The Democratic Alliance has slammed the “undesirable” and “draconian” sections on the grounds that they are a threat to the safety of all South Africans and would create an unfair monopoly over weather forecasting.

The legislation would make it illegal for independent forecasters to issue a severe weather warning. In other words, a fine and imprisonment would be imposed on any body apart from the national weather service who alerted the public to the fact that dangerous weather may be on the way.

DA environmental spokesman Gareth Morgan has slammed the draft amendments to the bill, saying:

(They are) an attempt… to establish and protect an unfair monopoly on services offered by the Weather Service, some of which are commercial services.

Meanwhile, others maintain that the bill’s purpose is to limit the damage caused by incorrect forecasts about extreme weather.

Either way, I’d rather be over prepared for a flash flood.

[Source: IOL]