'Stop abusing our fire tender,' Residents tell council

Residents of the mining town of Gwanda have called on the Municipality of Gwanda to stop abusing the council's sole fire tender.

Speaking on a street survey on disaster preparedness of the council conducted by Bulawayo 24 in the town, residents claimed that council has never been caught ready for a fire incident mostly because council is abusing the fire tender. Residents claim that the fire tender is being used for purposes that it is not meant to be serving and so always out of position when a fire breaks out.

The interviewed residents claim that the vehicle is always being used as a hailer calling on residents to attend numerous meetings and events in the town. According to the residents the vehicle is almost always roaming around town calling on people to attend council or ruling party gatherings. It is also said that the vehicle has been used to invite people to attend private events like wedding expos, Green World products launch and even church crusades.

"Council just doesn't seem to understand the importance of having the fire tender on stand by and ready in case a fire breaks out. You can't have a fire tender being used to go and attend to sewage blockages and even being used to ferry mail from one council office to the other," said one resident Zenzo Sibanda.

The fire tender does not have an inbuilt water tank and so has to tow a water bowser when a fire breaks out but in most occasions it is seen moving around without the bowser raising concerns on the preparedness in case a fire breaks out. In the most recent incident a fire nearly gut down a house at the marriage quarters of Jahunda Township when a fire broke out while the tender was out inviting people to a church crusade. The vehicle has an inbuilt public address system which is meant to control a crowd in an emergency situation but council is capitalising to use the system to make public announcements around the town.

"Council just enjoys attention of the people by driving around making announcements using the fire tender. Can you imagine if the town was as big as Harare how many vehicles will they send out to make those announcements." Asked a resident Watson Maphosa.