The City of Cape Town has received criticism for not maintaining firebreaks on the Cape Peninsula before the 2023/24 fire season.
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This criticism emerged after the City withdrew from an agreement with SANParks last year.
According to Philip Prins, former fire manager at Table Mountain National Park and current fire protection officer at the Cape Peninsula Fire Protection Association (CPFPA), SANParks was responsible for maintaining firebreaks on the wildland-urban interface with financial support from the City.
As per the Daily Maverick, most of the firebreaks across the Cape Peninsula are located on the wildland-urban interface, a ‘transition zone’ between wildlands and human settlements.
The maintenance operation, costing around R2 million annually, occurred once a year to prevent vegetation regrowth before the fire season. Prins noted the effectiveness of this operation in safeguarding the urban edge.
‘I think it was a model for the whole country because it was the only place where a local authority funded the firebreaks on private property, because private landowners are very reluctant to do their firebreaks properly.’
However, the City backed out of the agreement before the network of firebreaks could undergo maintenance and clearing, he adds.
Due to this, several firebreaks on City and private-owned land were not cut ahead of the 2023/24 fire season, which turned out to be one of the worst over the past few years.
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Nicky Schmidt of the non-profit organisation Parkscape said residents made numerous complaints about firebreaks not being cut.
‘There is a problem at the moment with [the] City of Cape Town and its properties and where it is obligated to make firebreaks because technically they should be making firebreaks around the urban edge of where they own property.’
‘There’s a bureaucratic issue and it’s [firebreak maintenance] not getting done… It’s not being done and it’s not because there aren’t people who are willing to do it,’ said Tessa Oliver, the manager of the Western Cape Umbrella Fire Protection Association.
Private landowners had to maintain and bear the cost of their firebreaks because the City withdrew its support.
Fire and Rescue Services spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said the City backed out because the agreement ‘was declared invalid via a Bid Adjudication Committee process as supply chain management processes changed over the years.’
According to Prins, the CPFPA cleared six out of 34 firebreaks on privately owned land, and he could not confirm whether the remaining 28 firebreaks were cleared as well.
‘The excuse from many private landowners is, that most of them own very small properties and can’t afford to maintain their firebreaks. The city has been doing this and created an expectation from the private landowners, and now they’ve pulled out of the agreement.’
‘They’re putting the city and its residents at risk by not completing the entire length of the… firebreak network, because you sit with holes in the network now,’ he said.
The City of Cape Town noted that its Recreation and Parks Department will respond to the Daily Maverick’s enquiry on allegations that most of the firebreaks on City land were not maintained and cleared ahead of the 2023/24 fire season next week.
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Prins says the City’s Recreation and Parks Department and Fire and Rescue Services should’ve revised the contract agreement between the City and SANParks because it was outdated.
The Daily Maverick reports that their officials were warned to revise the agreement two years ago but it has not been done, and the City could not deviate for a third time due to supply chain management (SCM) processes.
‘They knew about this and did not do anything about it. They did not revise the agreement in time and that’s why they then declared it invalid, and because of that they pulled out of the agreement and couldn’t then longer transfer the funds to SANParks for the maintenance of the privately owned firebreaks and the city’s firebreaks.’
Carelse confirmed that both departments were instructed to look into the agreement.
‘Unfortunately, in both departments, the officials who knew about this all retired before they actioned this. The agreement did not comply with SCM policies as we would not have been able to regularise any form of payment under this outdated agreement. For this reason, Fire Service is not part of any agreement, but we play a compliance role to ensure that all landowners maintain their firebreaks.’
According to Lauren Clayton, spokesperson for SANParks, the City informed them (SANParks) of their intention to ‘take responsibility for any firebreaks which fell on city and private land. Any further details need to be discussed with the city.’
‘The Circumpeninsula Firebreak Network remains an important tool in the management and suppression of wildland fire on the peninsula and inside the TMNP, because the urban interface within the park is so extensive.’
Clayton adds that SANParks finished maintenance on all its firebreaks before the commencement of the fire season. Nevertheless, sources familiar with the matter informed Daily Maverick that certain SANParks firebreaks were only cleared after the fire season began, and the contractors’ work was deemed substandard, necessitating the redoing of several firebreaks.
‘The cutting of the firebreaks is outsourced to vegetation-clearing contractors,’ says Clayton. ‘As with all contracts, there are snags and sections of breaks where contractors were asked to return to undertake work that was not up to standard. This impacted very small localised areas and has been rectified by contractors.’
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On Monday, firefighters battled a blaze on Trappieskop in Kalk Bay, which gutted one house and damaged another. The resident of the damaged house told Daily Maverick that the firebreak above Clairvoux Road (for which SANParks is responsible) was not maintained before the fire season started. Instead, it was reportedly only done recently.
Clayton says the contractor was appointed for Trappieskop on time and completed the firebreak in early January 2024. ‘The contractor for this area completed the majority of the firebreak ahead of the fire season but had to attend to snags by [the] end of January 2024.’
Another resident reportedly informed Daily Maverick that the firebreak behind Silvermine Military Base still hadn’t been maintained. When the publication visited the area on 13 February, it noted invasive alien plants growing up to the edge of the military base.
Clayton says the contractor for this area was also ‘appointed timeously and has been performing within the firebreak schedule.’
Prins and Ruan Matthee, who is also part of the CPFPA, say they are concerned that the City’s Recreation and Parks Department, which is responsible for all open property, including graveyards, parks, and road verges, is not a member of the CPFPA.
As per the National Veld and Forest Fire Act (NVFFA), state and municipal landowners are required to be members of a fire protection association (FPA) if they are registered in the area where the land is situated.
If the Recreation and Parks Department is not a member of the CPFPA, it violates the NVFFA.
‘Nobody from Recreation and Parks has ever attended one of our meetings, but the land that they manage — according to the definition of that land — they must also join the FPA,’ says Prins.
However, Carelse says the City of Cape Town is a member of the CPFPA and adds that the City’s Fire and Rescue Service and ‘various other role players’ attend their meetings. Although the City’s Fire and Rescue Service is a partner of the FPA and attends its meetings, it does not own or manage any land.
Prins and Matthee say the Recreation and Parks Department failed to respond to their requests to become a member of the organisation.
In response to these allegations, Carelse said: ‘This cannot be the case as the Fire Department is reliant on the CPFPA to provide us with the land owners’ details.’
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