Within their first month of office, the new City of Johannesburg administration organised the repair of 29 fire engines at its 28 fire stations.
According to Mayor Herman Mashaba, prior to the repair of the 29 fire engines, only eight of the stations had working vehicles.
“Johannesburg and its residents have been plagued by a critical shortage of fire engines for years and it is a disgrace that the previous administration did nothing to address this,” he said.
The lack of working fire engines put the City’s firemen under enormous pressure and reduced their capacity to respond effectively to emergency calls, also putting the health and lives of residents under serious threat, he added.
Residents have blamed Johannesburg’s Emergency Management Service (EMS) after their homes burnt down with no fire engines turning up at the scene. In most of the cases the Northcliff Melville Times reported on, a fire engine took more than an hour to reach the burning buildings.
Mashaba criticised the previous administration, saying the much-needed fire engines had remained in the workshop for years.
“Under the leadership of MMC of Public Safety, Michael Sun, we have been able to achieve what the previous administration could not do in years,” he said.
According to their website, the City’s EMS is one of the biggest emergency services units in Africa. It covers an area of
1 620km² and serves a population of almost 3.6 million.
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