Who and what is AfriForum?

AfriForum is an Afrikaans civil rights organisation that protects the rights of minority groups at national as well as provincial level, and anyone who can identify with AfriForum’s principles and objectives may join the organisation. AfriForum’s community plan focuses on mobilising communities to thus take control of their own streets and neighbourhoods again. AfriForum ensures that your constitutional and civil rights are recognised and protected at national level.

Wie en wat is AfriForum?

AfriForum is ’n Afrikaanse burgerregteorganisasie wat die regte van minderheidsgroepe op sowel nasionale as provinsiale vlak beskerm, en enigiemand wat met AfriForum se beginsels en doelstellings kan identifiseer, mag by die organisasie aansluit. AfriForum se gemeenskapsplan fokus daarop om gemeenskappe te mobiliseer om só weer beheer terug te neem oor hul eie strate en woonbuurtes. AfriForum verseker dat jou grondwetlike én burgerregte op nasionale vlak erken en beskerm word.

Private fire service case: Tshwane Metro must stump up for bungling; AfriForum to use money to strengthen private and civilian firefighting capacity

A costs order in an interlocutory judgement that the High Court in Pretoria imposed on the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality on Friday for their bungling in their case against the Sinoville Firefighting Association (SFA) – in which AfriForum’s legal team is assisting them – will now be used to strengthen private and civilian firefighting capacity in this metro. The SFA, as well as one other private firefighting service, is embroiled in a legal battle with the metro after the latter brought a court application in September last year to have private firefighting services operating in the metro declared illegal.

Judge J. Davis ruled in an interlocutory judgement on Friday that the metro’s legal team, Motsoeneng Bill Attorneys, did not obtain the necessary mandate in time to act on behalf of the metro in the court application. In his ruling, Davis slammed the metro, arguing that it was “abundantly clear that the proof of an actual mandate had been done in an unsatisfactory and haphazard fashion” and that it appeared that the metro was “part and parcel of this bungling”. The judge therefore ordered that the metro and its legal team pay the costs of the interlocutory application.

The ruling follows an interlocutory application that SFA filed in October last year, requesting that the purported mandate of the metro’s legal team be struck out and that the application – as far as SFA is concerned – be struck off the roll. Despite the metro’s legal team dismissing the application as frivolous and vexatious, it has since emerged that their purported mandate was incomplete and not signed by witnesses; and that the metro’s legal team did not obtain the necessary mandate from the national or provincial departments of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) to act on their behalf.

According to Tarien Cooks, Disaster Management Specialist at AfriForum, the awarding of the costs order in the interim application is already an important victory. “Although the court has ruled that the main application must continue and will not be struck from the roll, this victory is firstly a confirmation that the metro is not above the law. Secondly, it is also a victory for the community, because the very court case that seeks to have private firefighting capacity declared illegal will now contribute to this service – amidst the increasing inefficiency of municipal fire services – being expanded and strengthened in the interest of community safety. Ironically, the metro’s sloppy legal work in this case has so far been a welcome gain for private firefighting capacity,” explains Cooks.

Cooks, meanwhile, maintains that AfriForum is committed to fighting the main application to the end in collaboration with SFA to ensure that private firefighting services’ right to provide the service can be confirmed in court and their critical work can be continued without opposition from the metro or any other parties.