Not only has R200 million been slashed from the budget for new fire engines, but now the City of Johannesburg’s Emergency Management Services (EMS) no longer has a plan in place to repair and maintain the few vehicles, known as the red fleet, that they do have. This combined with a lack of leadership and support from the members of the Executive and City Management remains a recipe for disaster.
According to reliable sources, as of 1 March the City no longer has a maintenance and repairs contract in place, which means that should a fire engine (or any red fleet vehicle for that matter) break down now there will be no mechanics or towing services available to assist them.
Not only have they failed to award Bid A845 for the maintenance and repairs to the red fleet which was advertised late last year, they have also failed to extend the existing contract leaving the City’s emergency services vulnerable.
We still don’t know how many vehicles are in the red fleet, but this could be as low as two proper fire engines.
I urge the City to take this vital function of EMS seriously and put forward emergency procurement measures to solve this crisis. Saving lives and property is the core function of the EMS, and this should never be undermined by the lack of leadership which is being shown by the MMC and Mayor. Johannesburg residents deserve a wellrun and caring City which puts residents first and gets the basics right such as making sure there are enough
functioning fire engines.