WELCOMMING SPEECH BY HELEN ZILLE, MAYOR OF CAPE TOWN
 
FOR THE 56TH SA INSTITUTE OF FIRE ENGINEERS CONFERENCE ON ‘SAFE DESIGN FOR SMOKE CONTROL’
CAPE TOWN INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE - 26 SEPTEMBER 2007 – 11H00

President of the Institute of Fire Engineers, members, guests, and delegates. On behalf of the City of Cape Town I welcome you. I am honoured to have this opportunity to meet with our nation’s fire engineers.

The work you do is vital to us – it helps our emergency services staff to protect our citizens and themselves from the severe fires that have become a regular part of life in Cape Town. I understand that the focus of this Conference and tomorrow’s Workshop is on fires and the affects of fire in buildings, with particular reference to the dangers of smoke. With our hot dry summer conditions, this is a major concern for us, and we also have the unique smoke dangers that come with ship fires in our docks.

Our biggest challenge, however, comes from fires in our informal settlements. We currently have 222 such settlements around the City. This number is increasing each year, because we have the highest nett migration rate in South Africa, and most of those who come here are poor and have no where to stay. The materials used to build informal homes, the close proximity of these structures to one another, and the use of paraffin stoves and candle help fires to start, spread rapidly, and evade the efforts of our firefighters.

Every year large parts of townships are completely destroyed, and people’s lives are lost. The only long term solution is to upgrade these settlements. But in the interim, we have done everything possible to improve our fire-fighting capacity, including recruiting and training new staff, and purchasing new high tech equipment. I also hope that some new methods of reducing the risks for all concerned will be conceived by fire protection experts in forums such as this one.

Apart from fires in human settlements, Cape Town also suffers the effects of annual wild bush fires. In the last few years some of our most pristine conservation areas have been affected, including Cape Point, Table Mountain and the Helderberg. Fighting these fires has cost large sums of money, money the City cannot afford to lose. The unnatural frequency of these fires has also endangered some of biodiversity sites, and put certain plant species at risk of extinction.

Again, any advice that today’s delegates can offer to help us address this challenge, will be most welcome. Looking at the programme and credentials of the speakers, I am confident that you will have some innovative ideas. I also look forward to the benefits that our local delegates will gain from the programme.

From what we hear in Cape Town, the SA Institute of Fire Engineers is doing an excellent job of training and developing our community’s fire officers. We are glad to have the support and input of an international institution like IFE. I also hope, however, that this forum will give the Fire Engineers a chance to gain from the experiences of our own personnel here in Cape Town.

Apart from the learning activities, I urge you all to take the time to enjoy the many sightseeing venues and entertainment facilities in our area - the winelands, the museums, the Waterfront, the Castle, and Table Mountain, to name a few We are also delighted to be hosting SecurexCape, the international fire, safety, security and fire protection trade exhibition, at the same time as your conference. I trust you will all enjoy attending this show while you are here.

Thank you, and I wish you all well for today’s Conference.