The burning truth of fire stations in the Waterberg Municipality
It is a challenge for fire stations falling under the Waterberg Municipality to respond to emergency calls , says Yolande Coetzee, DA Councillor of Mogalakwena Municipality and Marlene van Staden, Mayor of the Modimolle/Mookgophong Municipalities.
MOKOPANE – The Mokopane Fire station also falls under the Waterberg Municipality and it directly contributes to the provision of services to the community and provides a first response to life-threatening emergencies in the area.”
According to Coetzee the Mokopane fire station has been in operation since 2010 with only six firefighters in total of which one is under medical care and not fit for duty and the services division have a total of nine personnel members that include the six firefighters.
“The six firefighters work as day workers from 7:30 to 16:30 and split into two standby shifts consist of three firefighters per shift except for the control room operators. This is not in compliance with legislation and South African National Standard (SANS) codes. According to the SANS codes, at least 18 personnel is required. There are also two disaster management posts frozen and must also be unfrozen urgently as this is placing pressure on the current staff.”
Coetzee said to cover the entire jurisdiction of the Mogalakwena Municipal area, the fire services should implement a shift system and fire services administration which consists of one Fire chief, one Divisional Fire safety officer and one Divisional Operational officer, one station officer and six firefighters per shift on a four shift system. “According to the last census which was done in 2012 there must be at least 48 personnel. It should be taken into consideration that Mogalakwena does not have a disaster management section and fire personnel sometimes happen to work throughout the month doing emergency activities including disaster management, this according to Waterberg District municipality, is not appropriate, as disaster management is not fire fighter competence and must not be performed by the fire personnel. The insufficient staff expose current personnel to fatigue and over-commitment.”
Coetzee said it is disturbing to think that the fire stations were officially opened on 29 September 1988 and were manned by more than 24 firemen and give service to a much smaller community.
One of the powers and functions between the district and local municipality as stipulated in the Municipal Structures Act section 84(1)(j) of local government states that district municipality has to ensure that fire fighting services serve the area of the district municipality as a whole.
“Currently the municipality is in discussions with Waterberg District regarding the Service Level Agreement which the last one was signed in 2010 that transferred powers to Waterberg District Municipality. This Service level agreement needs to be revisited and revised to ensure that personnel and equipment are updated and sufficiently managed.”
Marlene van Staden, Mayor of Modimolle-Mookgophong Municipality said there are fire trucks that have been abandoned at Modimolle and Mookgophong fire station since January. “I can confirm that the Democratic Alliance has written to the Executive Mayor of Waterberg District Municipality, Morris Mataboge to immediately fix all these fire trucks. Out of six fire trucks and vehicles stationed at Modimolle fire station, only two is functional whilst in Mookgophong, only one is functional out of six vehicles despite several requests for the others to be fixed considering that it’s dry season and chances of veld fires are very high.
“That is even more hair-raising is that the fire station is adjacent to Sebokeng Fuels which stores over one million litres of flammable and combustible liquid which causes a serious threat for the municipality in the event of a fire. The station for Modimolle- Mookgophong must have at least 25 fire fighters and currently only have 10 staff employed /approved on the institutional organogram and the last time employees at the fire station received their protective clothes was in 2010.”
Van Staden said to worsen matter further Bela Bela fire station is not operational at all and jeopardizes the safety of the residents. “Furthermore, no budget was allocated in the 2017/2018 financial year for Lephalale, Bela Bela and Modimolle-Mookgophong fire stations due to lack of funds from the government. Our communities depend on fully functioning fire stations to provide essential disaster services therefore, the failure to maintain all these stations by providing adequate resources might have devastating effects in the future.
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