The Democratic Alliance is appalled that Mogale City does not currently have fire engines to extinguish fires in the municipal area.
“Traditionally fire engines that service our municipality are based at the Fire Department in the Krugersdorp CBD and in Munsieville. But there are no operational fire engines deployed by the District to Mogale City to respond to fires in the 700sq kilometre municipal area,” DA ward councillor Lynn Pannall, said in a media statement.
“The West Rand District Municipality (WRDM) is responsible for fire protection. Why is it not executing its mandate in Mogale City? It must explain the shortage of fire engines to service residents of Mogale City.”
Pannall mentioned that the local Fire Department has only two small firefighting vehicles at its disposal. The WRDM seems to have an arrangement to access a privately owned fire engine, should the need arise. Precious time could be lost in securing this vehicle as it is not based at the Fire Department. This would create logistical, financial and insurance risks. At times this privately owned vehicle may not be available when a fire breaks out.
“The DA demands an in-depth investigation into this situation in a bid to find reasons for this shortage of fire engines. It challenges the ANC in the WRDM to inform residents of the true state of affairs.
“It is not fair or reasonable to expect residents to live with uncertainty regarding the district municipality’s capability to provide efficient fire services,” Pannall said.
“This doesn’t demonstrate that the ANC cares about residents; they should release information so that contingency plans can be made. In fact this situation poses a danger to our citizens. It is a failure of governance – a failure to protect citizens. It is completely unacceptable.”
She reiterates that this situation begs an explanation.
“Communities need the assurance that they are being protected by a district municipality mandated to do so. The reasons behind the absence of fire engines cannot be kept from communities. What excuse will the district municipality provide should a large building be razed to the ground because the Fire Department didn’t have a rapid response capability?
“The WRDM provides concurrent disaster management resources to the municipalities under its jurisdiction. This would include fire services. Each participating municipality must have locally based fire engines because of the vastness of the area, stretching from Merafong to Mogale.
“Speculation has it that insufficient spending on maintenance, tenders not being awarded in time to replace expiring contracts or incorrect specifications for replacement parts on fire engines, could be causes for the current absence of operational fire engines.”
Pannall concluded, “The DA will conduct oversight visits to highlight shortcomings so that this problem can be resolved.”
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