KZNFPA is the recognised Provincial Umbrella FPA for the KZN province and undertakes tasks in terms on the Act for and on behalf of local FPA’s. The primary responsibilities of KZNFPA as the Umbrella FPA are as follows;

1. appointment of a common FPO who would delegate certain powers and duties to the member FPAs
2. strategic policy and planning for the common area administered by several FPAs, e.g. for prescribed burning, common standards, common rules, joint fire preparedness and response plans, and the protection of common assets, including the strategic planning contributions to local disaster management plans
3. liaison and co-ordination with the provincial and local disaster management centres
4. communicating fire danger ratings to FPAs and others
5. weather data collection for improvements to the predictions from the NFDRS [National Fire Danger Rating System], and collection and dissemination of other relevant data and information, as well as, providing input data for fire danger ratings on behalf of its FPAs, such a veld curing information
6. training facilitation, in cases where training is not provided by the training industry
7. communication to landowners and the public regarding veldfire management in the area supply of fire incident command specialists or support and co-ordination between FPAs and other firefighting agencies in escalating fire conditions
8. advice to members of FPAs where court cases arise, such as providing statistical and weather information as well as advising on the procurement of expert witnesses. Note – although the FPO may assist as an expert witness, this may not always be practically possible.
9. facilitating mutual aid agreements (between parties within the umbrella association) management and maintenance of aerial support services
10. co-ordination functions, such co-ordination of equipment and other resources between individual FPAs, through such measures as mutual assistance agreements and the standard operating procedures they contain
11. providing equipment, personnel and training standards, where the fires services have not provided these
12. helping new FPAs to establish in the area covered by the umbrella organisation, in cases where FPAs are still needed