by Jacques Smalle – DA Limpopo Premier Candidate
Date: 04 March 2019
Release: Immediate
The DA Limpopo Premier Candidate, Jacques Smalle, accompanied by Modimolle-Mookgopong Municipality Mayor, Marlene Van Staden will today lay criminal charges of manslaughter at Mookgophong Police Station against four Senior officials at Waterberg District Municipality after four children died during a shack fire at Extension 02 in Mookgophong yesterday.
The DA will also visit the family later today to convey its deepest condolences during this difficult time of mourning.
These managers include the Municipal Manager, Morris Maluleka, Social Development and Community Services Manager, Peter Makondo, Divisional Manager for Community Services, Moses Sithole and the Chief Fire Officer, Dan Mokonyane.
The DA has engaged the Executive Mayor, Morris Mataboge on numerous occasions to fix all fire trucks that were abandoned at Modimolle and Mookophong fire stations since January 2018 but to no avail.
It is alleged that four children, aged between five and 14-years-old, were left at home by their mother who had gone to attend a church service when the fire started.
The fire service department was unable to come and extinguish the fire to save these children because the fire trucks are broken.
The DA can confirm that not even a single truck is functional out of the six vehicles available in Mookgophong fire station whilst none are functional out of six fire trucks and vehicles at Modimolle fire station.
According to the Municipal Manager Report regarding the fire stations, a staggering R109 million is needed to get the firefighting services to comply with the national standards.
The district municipality has allocated only R45 million to procure the firefighting equipment and this is too little, too late now considering the tragedy of losing four children in one family.
The DA believes that the incident could have been avoided if these fire trucks were functional as per our countless efforts to have them fixed since 2018.
To compound the matter, the operational requirements for both Modimolle and Mookgophong stations require that they have at least 36 firefighters but the current number is way below the required number as set out by National Fire Codes.
Fire station management is a line function of the municipality as it directly contributes to the provision of services to the community and provides a first response to life threatening emergencies in the area.
These Section 57 managers should be held accountable for the death of these innocent children through their negligent in their failure to fix these trucks in order to save more lives during the emergency.
The DA will engage MEC for Cooperative Governance, Jerry Ndou to intervene in this regard to ensure that more funds become available to comply with the national minimum requirements for fire departments.
The DA has a plan for Limpopo that ensures that our government puts the needs of our people first and speeds up the delivery of basic services to our communities.
Media Enquiries
Jacques Smalle
DA Limpopo Premier Candidate
083 392 3334
Marlene Van Staden Cllr
Modimolle-Mookgopong Municipality Mayor
073 497 5636