Services at the fire station in Koster in the North West have been halted for over a week. This comes after the disgruntled community forced fire fighters to shut down services and vacate the building last week Monday.
Residents accuse the Bojanala District municipality of nepotism and not following a fair recruitment process.
Koster is a small town near Rustenburg in the North West and it has only one fire station.
The community served by this station are disgruntled over a number of issued including nepotism when hiring new staff.
Intervention came from some political parties. While they agree with the community’s complaints, they’ve urged them not to destroy the fire station.
Democratic Alliance (DA) Chief Whip Moipone Doyi says: “Nepotism is the order of the day in this municipality. One has to belong to the same ruling party -the ANC – in order to get any form of employment within the municipality as if jobs in this area are for the ANC.”
Agang SA President Andries Tlouamma adds:
“We can escalate this matter to the relevant authorities whatever issues they have. But they must guard jealously their institutions, be it the fire station. They shouldn’t destroy it. We must have a better way of dealing with criminals.”
The SABC’s efforts to get comment from the Bojanala District Municipality have been unsuccessful.
