Johannesburg - Tension at the City of Joburg’s Emergency Management Services (EMS) boiled over on Wednesday night when a firefighter from the Orange Farm station shot and killed his boss.
The man was one of the firefighters placed on suspension following an illegal strike over the deaths of two firefighters who died of smoke inhalation after being trapped in an inner-city building this year.
On Wednesday night, the Orange Farm fire station’s action commander, Lesedi Phatsoe, arrived at the firefighter’s Vanderbijlpark home to serve him with a notice to appear before a hearing. He was shot dead.
Police spokesman Captain Johannes Motsiri said an argument broke out between the two.
“He shot him in the chest and the commander died at the scene. The suspect was arrested. The firearm, licensed, was recovered,” he said.
Another man who was with the station commander escaped unharmed.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, *Steve, a fellow firefighter, said the shooting was the culmination of events that followed the deaths of the two firefighters in May.
Michael Letsosa, 33, and Dan Zwane, 54, died of smoke inhalation after being trapped in a building in the CBD.
It was alleged that the incident manager had taken the pair with him into the building to determine where the ignition point was although he was supposed to have remained outside because he was in charge of the scene.
When the men went down, they did not even take a hose that would have provided a guideline out of the building if they got lost, and they would not have been able to extinguish the ignition point had they found it.
Long after the three went into the building, the incident manager crawled out, battling to breathe.
Other firefighters rushed into the smoke-filled building and found Letsosa. He had taken off his boots and heavy breathing apparatus, which had run out of oxygen, to try and make a run for it, but was overwhelmed by smoke.
Zwane was found on the other side. He had also taken off his breathing apparatus. Many firefighters at the time blamed the deaths on bad management and the alleged gunman, who has since been arrested, was one of the firefighters who had initiated complaints about their working conditions and salaries.
Aggrieved by difficult working conditions due to lack of equipment and low salaries, firefighters went on an illegal strike protesting that they were being made to work 12-hour shifts without compensation. Instead of reporting to work at 7am and leaving at 7pm, they started working their own hours from 8am to 4pm, leaving stations understaffed.
The firefighters claimed at the time that management had been blatantly ignoring their grievances, leaving them no choice but to embark on the illegal strike. They were subsequently suspended and only returned to work last week.
But on Wednesday night, “the station commander went to his house to give him the letter that warned him to appear at an ethics and compliance court”, said Steve.
According to DA councillor Michael Sun, who knows the firefighter personally, this incident is symptomatic of the growing tension in the EMS.
“It’s about time the city takes its head out of the sand and seriously starts looking at morale among its staff members.
“It has taken a tragic incident of one person losing his life and another facing the possibility of a long jail sentence to bring this issue to the fore,” he said.
EMS spokesman Robert Mulaudzi said he was not aware of the incident.
* Not his real name.
The Star