Private firefighting services in Tshwane face legal challenges from the municipality

The City of Tshwane’s legal action against private firefighting services in the city, especially targeting those it deems to be operating illegally, took a turn even before the main matter has been enrolled, with an interlocutory judgment that the metro’s legal team did not obtain the necessary mandate in time to act on behalf of the metro in the court application.

The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, imposed a costs order against the municipality due to its bungling in their case against the Sinoville Firefighting Association (SFA). AfriForum, whose legal team is assisting the firefighters in their legal bid, said the money will now be used to strengthen private and civilian firefighting capacity in this metro.

The SFA, as well as one other private firefighting service, is embroiled in a legal battle with the metro after the latter brought an application to have private firefighting services operating in the metro declared illegal. The City alleges that the private firefighters are contravening the statutory prescripts regarding the rendering of firefighting services in the Metro’s jurisdiction.

The City wants an order which interdicts the respondents from immediately stopping all private firefighting services. Fidelity Securefire is also a respondent in the matter. The City alleges that these private services are operating without proper authorisation and that they are contravening national and local legislation governing emergency services.

Judge Norman Davis meanwhile ruled in an interlocutory judgment that the metro’s legal team did not obtain the necessary mandate in time to act on behalf of the metro in the court application. In his ruling, Davis said that it was “abundantly clear that the proof of an actual mandate had been executed in an unsatisfactory and haphazard fashion” and that it appeared that the metro was “part and parcel of this bungling”.

The ruling follows an interlocutory application by SFA, requesting that the purported mandate of the metro’s legal team be struck out and that the application – as far as SFA is concerned – should be struck off the roll.

Despite the metro’s legal team dismissing the application as "frivolous" and "vexatious", it has since emerged that their purported mandate was incomplete and not signed by witnesses; and that the metro’s legal team did not obtain the necessary mandate from the national or provincial departments of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) to act on their behalf.

According to Tarien Cooks, Disaster Management Specialist at AfriForum, the awarding of the costs order in the interlocutory application represents an important victory. Cooks maintains that AfriForum is committed to fighting the main application to the end, in collaboration with SFA, to ensure that private firefighting services’ right to provide the service is confirmed and that their critical work can continue.

“Contrary to the Tshwane Metro’s unfounded allegations that private fire services are illegal, AfriForum’s legal team is convinced that there is no law that prohibits the establishment and operation of private fire services,” Cooks said. She added that the Metro is struggling to stay afloat financially and its fire services are failing and unable to provide an effective service to their residents.

“It is in the interest of every Pretoria resident to have access to fire services – whether from the municipality or a private service provider,” she said.

zelda.venter@inl.co.za