Harare mayor Jacob Mafume has called for improved emergency preparedness and response to fire incidents, adding that inadequate disaster preparedness could lead to job losses and economic downturns.
Speaking during the handover of protective clothing to the Harare City Fire Department by Paramount Garments yesterday, Mafume said the department was key to the city.
“The hallmark of any city is its ability to respond to disasters whether natural, artificial or otherwise. Where that is not adequately covered, it can create a lot of disturbance in the economy of the city and where it is the capital city, the economy of the country.
“I was being told here that this factory has been in existence for over 75 years and that's a lot of history, that's a lot of contribution to the economy, that's a lot of jobs and that can never be understated and we need to be able to react to these disasters in a way that protects life primarily, assets, property and the ability for them to continue,” Mafume said.
He said government had given the city fire tenders from Belarus but they were not enough.
“I think they have given us six now but we probably need more. We need to cluster the city and at least have a north, east, west, south kind of response as a minimum cluster where these fire engines are closer to where disasters can happen.
“Harare is now a city within a city and we are responding, I'm told, to a 150-kilometre radius in and around Harare and that's a lot of kilometres. We probably need, say at least around 15 to 20 fire engines,” he said.
Paramount group finance director Jeremy Youmans said their three-storey building that was destroyed by fire last year was yet to be rebuilt.
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“We cannot even agree on who the arbitrator should be at the moment and we have been going through the courts but it is a shame that we need to use third parties to settle these things.
“They spent months and months auditing the claims that we put in and all the documentation we gave them yet, we have not got any reasonable offer on the table any proof of how they will calculate what they have said they might,” he said.
