FIREFIGHTERS: WE’LL NO LONGER ATTEND TO EMERGENCIES AT NIGHT UNLESS ...

MANZINI - Firefighters have officially told government that they will not attend to emergencies at night unless they are convinced that their safety is guaranteed.

Following threats to the lives of personnel from the Eswatini National Fire and Emergency Services (ENFES), who would attend to fire incidents, especially at night, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development met with the affected stakeholders and their management last Thursday. According to sources who are well-placed within the department, the meeting was attended by the Principal Secretary (PS) in the ministry, Clifford Mamba.

They said during the talks, the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), which was representing the fire and emergency personnel, told their employers and management that they would remove themselves from a workplace where they foresaw an imminent danger to their lives. The source said this was granted by Section 18 (2) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act No.9 of 2001 which states; ‘An employee shall have the right to remove himself or herself from danger when such an employee has reasonable justification to believe there is imminent and serious risk to the safety and health of that employee’. NAPSAWU Secretary General (SG) Thulani Hlatshwako, confirmed the developments. He said they had noted that members of the State security forces usually clashed with members of the public or protesters during the day and at night when there were emergencies, mainly fire incidents, they would be expected to attend to.

Emergencies

“We will not attend to emergencies at night and we do not want to go with them to the scenes because they are the main target - the people can kill us together with them,” Hlatshwako said. He said they informed the employer that they would only attend to fire incidents at night once the police or soldiers had gone to the scene to assess it and ensure that there would be no threats to their lives - that was, no one would shoot or bomb them. After that, he said a team that would escort them to the scene should be sent to the fire station. “We want government to ensure that we are safe. We will not leave our workstations at night until we are convinced that we will be safe,” the unionist said. He said even when attending to emergencies during the day, some members of the public, who were not content about the ruling regime - Tinkhundla System of Government, pelted them with stones.

However, he said as firefighters, they had agreed that during the day, they would take the risk and continue attending to emergencies because they were only pelted with stones, not guns.
“At night it’s a different scenario as instead of stones, the attackers use guns and the recent incident happened at Pigg’s Peak Fire Station – where shots were fired when unknown arsonists torched the Central Transport Administration (CTA) and magistrates court,” he said. He added that during the meeting, the employer informed them that the matter would be taken up with Cabinet and once it had been deliberated upon, they would be given feedback.

Meanwhile, ENFES Public Relations Officer (PRO) Mandla Dlamini, confirmed the meeting and said government was made aware of the threats to the lives of the firefighters. He said for now, the arrangement that was agreed upon was that if they received an emergency call at night, members of the security forces would go to the scene to assess it, before fire personnel could attend to it. He said the security officers would also escort the fire engines and personnel to the scene.

Concern

He highlighted that the concern would be the time of arrival at the scene. He said time would be lost in the process, but they would try to be quick in order to minimise the extent of the damage, especially during fire incidents. Another source within the department said another viable option, which would be looked into, would be that the security personnel should set-up mini camps at the fire stations. He said this could help in terms of the time taken to attend to the emergencies. Communications Officer in Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Lungelo Nkambule, said the ministry was unaware of such a decision. She said what they knew, was that the issue was mentioned when union representatives paid a courtesy visit to the ministry’s management, where issues concerning their welfare and safety, among others, were discussed.

On this matter,  she said the ministry advised the firefighters that there were terms and conditions that governed how they were expected to do their job and the ministry’s expectation was that they would continue to carry out their duties within the scope clearly articulated by the employer and were known to them. To address their safety concerns, she said the ministry made an undertaking to continue working (with) and engaging relevant stakeholders to ensure that they (firefighters) were always safe when rendering their services. She said no binding decisions were taken at the meeting, as it was just a courtesy meeting by the employees to their management.

It is worth noting that this is not the first time NAPSAWU urged its members, including those in the fire department, to invoke Section 18 (2) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act No.9 of 2001, by removing themselves from a workplace where they foresaw imminent danger. During the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, NAPSAWU said without disposable isolation suits (personal protective equipment), healthcare givers and firefighters under the trade union would not attend to accidents and other scenes that required their attention.

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