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4 March 2009

The Free State MEC for Agriculture, Me Mamiki Qabathe, will donate fire fighting equipment to the Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality on Friday, 6 March 2009.

This is necessitated by the fact that most of the local municipalities in the Free State province are affected by veldfires on an annual basis. The cost of relief, and the losses to farmers both commercial and emerging, amount to hundreds of millions of rands every year.

Dihlabeng Local Municipality is area most ravaged by these fires closely followed by Maluti-A-Phofung Local Municipality. Phumelela has large fires as does Cornelia in Mafube Local Municipality, however the number of fires in these two areas is low but when fires do occur they tend to turn into large ones. Both these areas have low population densities, large farms, and high fuel loads in excess of 2 500 kilograms per hectare. The portion of Setsoto most ravaged by fires is the mountainous region of Ficksburg to Fouriesburg.

The department believes that steps can be taken to reduce or even prevent the occurrence of these disastrous veldfires in the province. This pro-active exercise will not only save government support on an annually basis but will protect the sustainability of agricultural resources over a wide spectrum.

The prevention of veldfire hazards will directly assist the viability of the economy in the Free State province. The consequence is that drought and other disastrous hazards will be easily managed through the protection of valuable veldt and veldt fodder banks.

The National Veldt and Forest Fires Act of 1998 require that landowners take particular measures for fire protection, and that communities should establish Fire Protection Associations (FPA) to address the need for co-ordinated fire management.

It is against this background the Department of Agriculture (DoA), Free State have made R2,5 million available for the procurement of fire fighting prevention equipment for the emerging farmers, Fire Prevention Associations (FPA) and help fire functional groups in the areas annually affected by veldfires in the Free State province.

The department will donate 150 slip on units (5 00l), fire-fighting truck (4 000 litres) 4X2 and other essential fire fighting equipments to the Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality to enable the district municipality to better support local municipalities FPAs to fight veldt fires occurrences in the district area.

The department will also enter into a service level agreement with the district municipality who will further enter into agreements with the local municipalities and the FPAs on the usage of this equipments and the maintenance thereof.

The MEC will further engage on an Identity Document (ID) Campaign on Saturday, 7 March 2009.

Both events are arranged as follows:

Donation of fire fighting equipment

Date: 6 March 2009
Venue: Bethlehem's Gobble Park Stadium
Time: 10h00

Identity Document (ID) Campaign

Date: 7 March 2009
Venue: Mphophomo Intermediate School, Waterfall Farm, Van Reenen area

For enquiries contact:
Ntai Mokhitli
Cell: 082 883 7317

Issued by: Department of Agriculture, Free State Provincial Government
4 March 2009