The Mpumalanga High Court has ruled that the City of Mbombela’s (CoM) Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services may use its attached firefighting vehicles, but only in case of emergency.
The latest court judgment was made on Tuesday, which means all seven vehicles will remain under judicial attachment and may not be sold or disposed of, but can be used by the municipality in emergencies.
The CoM can still apply for rescission on the normal roll, which would then be heard at a later stage.
While the three fire engines are still at the Mbombela Fire Station’s premises, possession has been legally transferred to the Sheriff of the Court. Should the CoM fail to pay the outstanding amount to its service provider as detailed below, the next step would be auctioning off all seven vehicles.
This all stems from an attachment order granted to Tunica Trading 104 on December 9 after the CoM’s failure to pay for services rendered to the tune of almost R7m, which amount had been outstanding for more than a year.
Three fire engines, three water tankers and a grader were then attached by the service provider. On December 24, the municipality’s urgent application for rescission of judgment was denied and struck from the court roll.
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Adv Ali Milazi, representing Tunica Trading 104, told Lowvelder that the CoM is not off the hook yet, and it still needs to pay his client.
“The judgment will remain the same – that the Sheriff will keep all the equipment and ensure that it is not sold or damaged. Regarding auctioning off the equipment, a date has not yet been set. We are still waiting for the municipality to give us an offer, but if that does not happen, we will have no choice but to put all the attached equipment on auction to recoup the money owed to Tunica,” he said.
