The Citizen reports that firefighters contracted by the Tshwane Emergency Services (TES) across the capital have made allegations of maladministration in the department.  

They cited low morale, problems at control rooms, new poorly trained recruits and a lack of performance increments among their struggles.  Senior members of staff have said that if a “major fire broke out tomorrow”, the capital city would burn to the ground.  They attributed this observation to young firefighters being scared to go into burning buildings due to poor training.  “Our new recruits are inexperienced due to incompetent instructors and inadequate training courses,” an experienced fireman maintained.  Another source alleged the morale of the firefighters was also very low.  A further 75 firefighters, who started working before 2010, said they had not received increments since 2011.  TES spokesperson Johan Pieterse shot down the allegations as false.

• Read this report by Virginia Keppler in full at The Citizen

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