New fire trucks bought by Cape Town’s municipality are put together with ”pop rivets”, a probe into the state of city’s overstretched fire services has been told.
The claim is contained in an interim report, made public on Monday, by a committee headed by councillor Debbie Schafer.
Schafer said in the report that the way procurement was done in the fire service was ”regarded with suspicion and distrust”, and whether or not the concerns were justified, they should be investigated.
Among the main complaints was that there was no consultation with fire-fighting staff on vehicle design and requirements, and often the people buying the vehicles did not know the needs of those using them.
Suspicions existed about the company that had been receiving the tenders for fire engines for the past few years, and there were concerns that a senior official in the tender process had a conflict of interest.
”Allegations are made that the workmanship of the company that receives most of the tenders is of such poor quality that vehicles are regularly returned for more repairs,” she said.
”It is stated that fire trucks are being put together by pop rivets.”
It had also been claimed that fire trucks were being delivered in an unfinished state simply to avoid tender penalties. The vehicles were then returned for the work to be completed, and this work was paid for out of the repairs and maintenance budget.
An allegation had also been made that because of the council’s requirement that tenders had to be awarded to black economic empowerment-compliant companies, this often led to equipment being bought at up to double the cost from other suppliers.
Schafer said that in terms of a resource plan presented to the council in March, the current staff of 704 firefighters needed to be almost doubled to 1 387.
There was a urgent need for a replacement for former fire chief Piet Smith, who resigned recently, and more vehicles.
Mayoral committee member for safety and security Dumisane Ximbi said in a statement released along with the report that the city would move to appoint a new fire chief immediately and would deal with other key issues ”as soon as possible”.
This included the filling of 48 vacancies that had arisen since July 1 last year, for which there was already funding, and conducting a forensic investigation into the tender process.
He said hearings would be held on Schafer’s recommendations, following which a final report would be drafted. — Sapa