Firefighting equipment vital
IWAS the chief fire officer of the City of East London until I resigned in 1997. I have read with dismay the articles concerning the state of the fire department of the now Buffalo City Municipality. During my time from 1982 to 1997, we struggled every year to get a budget approved by the council which considered the fire department to be a necessary evil. Being a 24-hour service, staff costs took up a large slice of the budget.
It was a struggle to get a budget approved for the purchase of vehicles and equipment.
We kept the wheels turning by any means possible and looked after the vehicles and equipment we had like they were gold. I was instrumental in getting the council to approve the fire levy and include it in the monthly consolidated billing system.
In those days it was R3.50 pm per dwelling and R4.50 pm for business premises. This went a long way to helping with the purchase of vehicles and equipment to render an efficient service. We were short-staffed at times, but we had pride in our service.
The council agreed to the purchase of two good, second-hand fire trucks from the UK which cost about a tenth of the cost of a new fire truck. We brought second-hand breathing apparatus sets and rescue equipment with the fire trucks.
We had two dedicated mechanics on our staff, who were on call after hours and carried out repairs to vehicles and equipment 24/7.
I remember being at a council meeting where an Alderman said: “The fire chief wants a Rolls Royce service and we are a Toyota bakkie country.”
My reply was, when it comes to saving lives and property, a bakkie isn’t good enough. — Robert Pegg particular reference to whom it should belong, the Freedom Charter articulated correctly as to what should happen to the land after freedom.
We did not just support the declarations of this people’s charter, we physically put up a fight to see them being implemented. Many of us chose the ANC as a possible credible organisation to achieve that objective.
I was personally perturbed and annoyed when the government of our movement came up with the so-called National Development Plan instead of developing the Freedom Charter as a guiding document.
We do not need a civil war to nationalise the land, exactly the way Julius Malema explained when he was addressing the Property Association in Cape Town on June 21.
The ANC government must pass a law in parliament which declares that the land belongs to the state, finish and klaar, and issue all those who owned houses or factories or farms with certificates of occupations.
The longer this land question issue remains unresolved, the more the so-called middleclass who were part of the struggle will also accumulate land with their newly acquired resources, and will be a powerful part of those who continues to oppose the expropriation of the land without compensation.
Otherwise the governing party is running the risk of losing the patience of the landless and the beginning of land occupation on a massive scale. — Zwelibangile Modi, Ezibeleni