The Department of Local Government and Housing is appealing to all community members to report incidents of fires when they happen.

The provincial spokesperson of the department, Mr Clayson Monyela, said there had been a number of incidents of fires reported in the province since the beginning of this month. Although he did not have a record of the number of fires that occurred and the damage recorded so far, Monyela said they were busy assessing the damage from different municipalities. “Because we know that our province is prone to veld fires during this period of the year, which is dry and windy, we have given our local municipality and district municipalities all the necessary equipment they can use to fight fires, such as fire extinguishers and protective clothes,” said Monyela.

He said it was important that the community must call 080 0222 111, which is their toll-free number, for any disaster-related incident.

He said it was important for the community to call immediately when they saw fires starting, so that there could be a quick response. “When people call that number, our local, district and provincial officers will know and respond immediately, depending on where such an incident is happening,”said Monyela.

Meanwhile, Mr Joe Gondo, President of the National African Farmers Union, said about three incidents of fire were reported every day in the Sekhukhune area alone. Since the temperature rose to 43 degree last Thursday, there was a high number of incidents of fire reported from different parts of the province.

“This is a very big problem as we no longer have grazing land for our cattle. We are therefore appealing to our government to help us with bales, stored grass, to feed our cattle,” said Gondo.

Monyela says farmers can get assistance from their local municipality as there is a disaster fund that is meant to help in such situations.