The DA in the Capricorn District Municipality will seek urgent answers and accountability regarding the delays in operationalising the TT Cholo Fire Brigade Station in Ga-Rampuru, Moletši, in the Molemole Local Municipality – while farmers in the Dendron area faced devastation as fires swept through the region.
Between Thursday and Sunday last week, fires destroyed some 10 000 hectares of farmland in the Dendron region. Entire farms and livelihoods built up over generations were lost, including livestock, crops, grazing land, infrastructure, and a farmhouse.
Several farmers, their family members, and workers were injured fighting the blaze, with at least one farmer hospitalised.
Farmers have praised and expressed gratitude for the extraordinary support of their fellow farmers from Dendron, Vivo, Kalkbank, and Polokwane who rallied to fight the blaze and offer post-fire assistance, including access to grazing land. Farmers responded with bakkies, firefighting equipment, workers, and even two crop-sprayer aircraft to contain the inferno.
But the same cannot be said of the municipal fire brigade service. Apart from the Polokwane Local Municipality, it is the Capricorn District Municipality that bears responsibility for fire brigade services within the Capricorn district. Yet while a fire tender from the Blouberg fire station did arrive, it carried no water. Even more troubling are the continued delays in finalising and operationalising the TT Cholo Fire Brigade Station in Ga-Rampuru.
The site for the TT Cholo Fire Brigade Station was handed over to the contractor in 2017. In 2022, then and still current Mayor of the Capricorn District Municipality, Mamedupi Teffo, announced that the station was “88% complete” and had been “reprioritised for completion during the financial year”. In January 2023, the station was declared “90% complete.” Yet, despite repeated promises and reprioritisations, it remains incomplete and inoperative.
The community deserves clear answers on what has delayed the completion of the TT Cholo Fire Brigade Station. They also deserve to know who will be held accountable for this mismanagement, and when the station will finally become fully operational.