Fire follies proves a point

Will there ever come a time again when Zululanders can expect professional service delivery from their municipalities?

That is a fair question considering the incompetence and an uncaring attitude by local authority officials and Councillors towards the public they are supposed to serve, which is becoming more the norm than the exception.

Virtually every week we report on some or other municipal folly, clearly indicating that there are no maintenance programmes to ensure disruption-free essential services, little, if any, proactive planning and a disturbing lack of expertise in critical areas.

Only recently, for example, the lack of maintenance caused a mighty power outage in Richards Bay which caused billions of rands of losses to the economy.

Massive underspending on the capital budget has been reported and every now and then rumours of tender rigging surface – but are never addressed.

The latest comedy of errors involves the uMlalazi Municipality.

While a distraught family watched helplessly as a fire was engulfing their home last Thursday, the municipal fire services ran around like headless chickens.

There was initially no driver for the fire truck, the first vehicle on the scene – a Land Cruiser – could not produce enough water pressure to fight the fire, and when eventually a larger fire truck arrived (far too late), the public had to show the fire crew how to correctly connect the hoses and work the pumps.

After only four minutes the water supply ran out and the crew had to leave to refill. Another crew arrived and were also unable to start up their water pump and, once more, the community had to assist.

A comedy movie script could not have read better.

And one must pray no serious fire breaks out in the City of uMhlathuze. In 2012 a report was submitted detailing that the Richards Bay fire station was falling apart, equipment and communication systems were outdated, ladders could only reach to two-storey heights and a host of other shortcomings.

To date absolutely nothing has been done about it.

Zululanders deserve much better treatment from those responsible for their infrastructural well-being and safety.