30 Aug 2023

Batswana should be educated on safe event management, health and safety measures as well as fire management.

The Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Setlhabelo Modukanele, said this when officiating at the Botswana Fire Fighters’ Forum held in Selebi Phikwe on Monday.

Mr Modukanele applauded all fire fighters, health and safety personnel as well as rescue services for their intentional mind-set change to bring closer, faster and better services to Batswana.

He said the Jwaneng Toyota Gazoo 1 000 Desert Race fire incident was a wake-up call and challenged all stakeholders to pause and strategise on their readiness on fire safety.

He said: “It revealed discrepancies in resource availability, resource mobilization, collaboration and general event planning and management.

“Through the misfortune, a paradigm shift in thinking as well as doing business was cultivated.”

Mr Modukanele who is also MP for Lerala/ Maunatlala challenged fire fighters to take Batswana on board, if they were to achieve zero harm in the event of danger. He emphasised the need to educate Batswana on safe event management, health and safety measures as well as fire management.

This, he said, could be achieved through signed service level agreements between institutions such that one institution’s weakness became the other’s strength. “Team work, shared resources, one government.”

Through the National Decentralisation Policy, he explained, the government had capacitated local authorities to be autonomous, better resourced as well as shortened the decision making process.

He said local authorities were at the centre stage of improved service delivery hence they should anchor all stakeholders in the betterment of lives in their localities.

Mr Modukanele also explained that through his ministry’s Strategy and Transformation Plan (2021-2025), they effected major structural reforms including the creation of a department that would deal with coordination of the work of fire fighters.

“Surely this is the way to go if we are to efficiently and effectively regulate, plan, resource and coordinate the demands of your field,” he said.

Held under the theme “Safety Education, key to safe industrialisation for SPEDU region,’’ the day aimed at creating public fire safety awareness through collaborative fire safety audits.The Mayor of Selebi Phikwe,

Mr Lucas Modimana, emphasised on the need to align the fire service with the National Transformation Agenda.He said there was need for officers in the fire service to change their mindset by changing or re-engineering their processes and creating a shared value.

A shared value could be created by avoiding fires and assisting the public to avoid fires because of limited resources to cover the entire SPEDU region.

Mr Modimana said the council was looking into the issue of establishing a fire academy in Selebi Phikwe, as part of the re-set agenda to cut the budget of training fire fighters outside the country.

He said the council was also looking at facilitating local manufactures to produce personal protective equipment for fire and purchasing the oxygen needed locally through Oxygas, which produces oxygen and industrial gases.

The Selebi Phikwe East legislator, Mr Kgoberego Nkawana, said holding the forum in Selebi Phikwe gave the town some life after closure of the BCL mine, which was the economic backbone of the town.

Mr Nkawanana urged other stakeholders to emulate the fire fighters to bring more events to Selebi Phikwe.  ENDS