Stellenbosch University (SU) awarded an honorary doctorate to Mr Colin Deiner at a graduation ceremony for the Faculty of Engineering today (Monday, 8 December 2025).

Deiner, who serves as the Chief Director of Disaster Management and Fire and Rescue Services for the Western Cape provincial government, is internationally recognised for his extensive expertise in disaster management and response. He received the degree of Doctor of Engineering (DEng), honoris causa.

Honorary doctorates are awarded to extraordinary individuals who have distinguished themselves in their respective fields and made significant contributions to society.

Deiner has led South African search and rescue teams to disaster-affected areas both domestically and internationally. 

In his response, Deiner said that he is “deeply honored” to receive this honorary doctorate from SU, an institution renowned for engineering excellence in South Africa.

“Being the first disaster manager to receive this recognition is profoundly humbling, and I accept it on behalf of all the men and women working in disaster risk management and emergency services.

“This honour reflects an important shift: disaster management is no longer viewed solely as a reactive discipline. It has become an engineering challenge that demands scientific rigour, innovation, and resilient design in the face of increasingly complex risks.”

Disasters occur where people, infrastructure, and the environment meet — and that intersection is fundamentally an engineering space. “Engineering is the quiet backbone of resilience: the unseen calculations behind a flood wall, the strength of a bridge during a swollen river, the reliability of the pump station that keeps a city functioning, the redundancy of a power grid, and the integrity of buildings designed to withstand both time and catastrophe.

“I believe this recognition strengthens the collaboration between engineering and disaster management as we work to build safer, more resilient communities across South Africa.”

Career in disaster response

Deiner, who has 40 years of experience in his field, started his career as a firefighter at the age of 21. He holds a bachelor’s equivalent degree in fire technology and has completed numerous vocational training courses in South Africa and in the USA. 

Deiner rose from operational roles to provincial command in the Western Cape and Gauteng.  He now heads the Western Cape Provincial Disaster Management Centre, which in recent years orchestrated responses to major floods, wildfires, the Covid-19 pandemic and a major apartment building collapse in George. In the 2024 building collapse, as incident commander, he led over 600 people in South Africa’s most successful urban search and rescue operation to date, rescuing 29 survivors — the last after 118 hours.

Awards, innovations, and lasting legacy

Deiner has extensive managerial experience coordinating and managing provincial disaster management centers as well as fire and rescue services.

He introduced the ‘initial rapid attack’ aerial firefighting concept in the Western Cape, which involves a significant early response from firefighting aircraft during the early stages of a potentially devastating wildfire.

On a national level, he developed disaster strategies for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and coordinated urban search and rescue efforts for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. He also managed Gauteng’s first declared disaster due to xenophobic violence in 2008. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he oversaw the quarantine and repatriation of 8 000 foreign nationals.

His expertise is highlighted by his leadership of South African teams in earthquake zones, including Turkey (1999), India (2001), Algeria (2003), Iran (2003-2004), Pakistan (2005), Haiti (2010), and Japan (2011). He also led teams providing flood relief in Malawi (2015) and coordinated tsunami aid to Asia (2004-2005).

Denier received the Western Cape Premier’s Service Excellence Award in 2021 and the National Batho Pele Silver Award in 2022.

The Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Professor Wikus van Niekerk, congratulated him and said: “This honorary degree will help raise awareness for the behind-the-scenes heroes in South Africa's complex disaster landscape.” 

This DEng aligns with SU’s Masters in Fire Engineering and highlights Deiner’s cross-disciplinary impact in engineering, policy, and resilience-building, he added.

Deiner has shared his extensive expertise widely, contributing regularly to industry publications on disaster management, search and rescue, wildfires, and related topics. He has also collaborated with several SU departments — including Fire Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering, the Research Alliance for Disaster and Risk Reduction (RADAR) in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and the Division of Emergency Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences — to share his knowledge and support research and training initiatives.