The Malvern Fire Station’s woes continue as residents’ concerns remain unresolved.
“We are not clear on the issue of fire engines. The station is failing the community, especially Ward 65. It’s been without fire engines for almost three years and this is affecting the community when there are fires,” said Ward 65 Clr Lindani Zulu.
“We had a fire in Denver recently and had to wait an hour and a half for a fire engine to arrive. That is not fair to the community,” said Zulu.
The EXPRESS has followed up on the procurement of new fire engines by the City of Joburg.
In March, an inquiry was sent to Emergency Management Service (EMS) spokesperson Robert Mulaudzi, questioning when the fire engine that went in for repairs will be returned to the station or if the station will receive a new fire engine.
He then commented the fire engines, including the one from Malvern, were still in for repairs and that the delay was due to parts that had to be obtained from overseas.
He said three new fire engines were delivered to City of Johannesburg (CoJ) in February 2018 which were to serve Malvern, the CBD and Berea.
Johannesburg residents have been sharing their frustrations on social media.
“I have noted concerns about the shortage of fire engines,” said executive mayor Clr Herman Mashaba after it was recently announced that the CoJ cancelled a contract for the provision of fire engines.
“The tender was awarded on the basis of forged Bid Evaluation Committee (BEC) documents. It is this same contract, entered into by the previous administration, for which the president has now called an investigation.
“As a result of the supplier not being able to meet its contractual obligations and given the fraudulent tender process, the city had to cancel the R161-million contract.
“Before the supply contract was formally terminated, we managed to salvage five new and two newly refurbished fire engines from the supplier by strictly adhering to supply chain regulations,” said Mashaba.
He said following the termination of the previous contract, the CoJ initiated a new procurement process, or Fire Engine Replacement Programme (FERP).
“Despite an initial setback in this process, with a preferred supplier withdrawing from the tender process, the FERP is currently in the process of being finalised and is expected to be concluded in the near future.
“This will allow the city to place an order for 92 additional EMS vehicles, including fire and rescue vehicles, delivery of which will commence soon. This will be an unprecedented acquisition of fire engines for a municipality.
“This will result in the 30 fire stations in the city each receiving a new fire engine,” said Mashaba.
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