GEORGE NEWS - A report to the Eden Council has cleared the earlier suspicion that employees of the Working on Fire (WoF) programme might have been involved in starting fires in the region.

The causes of all the fires attended by the Eden Fire Services since the start of the 2017/2018 financial year were investigated, following an earlier request by Eden Councillor Piet van der Hoven to check rumours in this regard.

A report to Council by Eden's chief fire officer, Freddie Thaver, states that "it can reasonably be concluded that after the initial assessment done in terms of this report, it cannot be indicated that the fires in the district were intentionally started by employees of the Working on Fire (WoF) programme. 

"It should also be noted that the employees of WoF do not receive any overtime and only receive a daily stipend."

Van der Hoven requested that an investigation be conducted into the causes of fires during the council meeting of 22 January. 

In a statement to the George Herald after the January meeting, he said it was his contention that there needed to be an investigation into the appointment of contracted firefighters by the municipality, as there were rumours going around that unemployed people were deliberately starting fires to be employed in these projects.

"My statement was not in any way intended to cause a wrong aspersion on the award-winning Working on Fire programme," said Van der Hoven.

"I have now been informed that these firefighters in Working on Fire are employed in terms of national government's Expanded Public Works Programmes (EPWP) and as such are employed 'full time' at various bases throughout the district municipality, where they provide an essential fire suppression and fire prevention service to municipalities and landowners."

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