Civil rights organisation AfriForum has accused the City of Tshwane of failing to maintain municipal sites, including cemeteries, which pose significant fire hazards as the fire season approaches in August.
This criticism follows last week’s warning by the city to landowners and fire protection associations to comply with key fire prevention regulations in order to prevent, predict, manage, and extinguish veld fires.
The City of Tshwane Emergency Services Department urged landowners to adhere to the National Veld and Forest Fire Act, enacted in 1998, to provide guidelines for managing and preventing veld fires.
Additionally, property owners were informed about the City of Tshwane Fire Brigade Service bylaw, published in 2016, outlining specific rules for fire safety in Tshwane.
Tshwane Emergency Services Department, Lindsay Mnguni said: “It is common cause that lives are often lost as a result of veld, forest and mountain fires, with rural people suffering enormous damage to their livestock and homesteads during the fire season.”
He explained that the fire season is rampant during the dry winter months in Gauteng.
“Large-scale losses to the forestry industry are also incurred regularly. However, dangerous and destructive fire incidents remain an existential threat throughout the year,” he said.
However, AfriForum has slammed the city for applying double safety standards, pressuring private landowners and fire protection associations to comply with fire safety regulations while failing to adhere to the same standards itself.
Tarien Cooks, AfriForum’s disaster management specialist, said the civil rights organisation fully supports the metro’s call to observe relevant fire prevention legislation and regulations.
However, she said, the metro must also adhere to legal requirements as well, in order to ensure the safety of people, animals and infrastructure from fire risks.
She mentioned that the law outlines that property owners or occupiers must ensure their premises don’t pose a fire hazard to neighbouring properties due to overgrown vegetation, such as grass, weeds, reeds, shrubs, or trees.
However, she pointed out that the city consistently fails to comply with the same bylaw, despite it applying to the metro as well.
AfriForum expressed concern about various cemeteries and other municipal sites, such as open fields and veld strips adjacent to roads in the metro, citing them as serious fire hazards due to poor maintenance.
Cooks said: “Overgrown sidewalks and other overgrown open municipal areas are visible throughout the metro. These strips and areas pose a serious fire hazard, yet the metro is failing to meet this critical responsibility. It is especially essential now, in the dry months and during the upcoming windy August and September period, to maintain these sites according to the prescribed requirements. The metro has a responsibility to practice what they preach and not only hold private landowners accountable for complying with the relevant legislation and bylaws.”
