The DA in Mpumalanga raised their concern about the state of a fire departments in a municipality.
According to a statement dated May 18 from Trudie Grové-Morgan, lives are at risk as the municipality has had no fire engine for almost a decade.
The DA-spokesman on CoGTA said a letter has been written to CoGTA MEC, Mandla Ndlovu, requesting urgent intervention in Dr Pixley ka Seme Municipality that has been without a fire engine for the past eight years.
According to the DA, this is because of a breakdown of the only fire engine which was given by the Gert Sibande District Municipality around 2002, to service the towns of Volksrust, Wakkerstroom, Perdekop and Amersfoort.
“Despite not being functional during this eight year period, the municipality continued to employ nine firefighters, who were unable to perform their duties because of the lacking fire engines,” the statement read.
Two incidents of fires last year were cited, one where two children died when a house caught fire in Amersfoort, and another when a business caught fire.
“In both instances, firefighters were not able to assist because they had no fire engines.”
Three major routes pass through namely the R23, N11 and the R35.
“These routes have around 2 000 trucks passing through, in addition to the usual traffic.
“Should there be an accident in which a vehicle catches fire, the municipality’s own fire department would be powerless to assist.”
Grové-Morgan also said the municipality constantly delayed the procurement of a fire engine.
“It is equally concerning that although the municipality advertised for the procurement of a fire engine in July 2020, they have failed to award the tender and complete the process.
“A similar tender was advertised in February this year, but to date, they did not complete the procurement process and there are still no fire trucks to service the four towns of this municipality.”
