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Mortas Khambule finished building a house for his mother, Tabitha, last year. Although she died before it was finished, she had known it was coming. She also knew that her enthusiastic, bright child, who had been unemployed and depressed, had been on his feet since joining South Africa's Working on Fire (WoF) program.
This public-private initiative creates jobs for the rural poor across the country, helping them develop skills that allow them to tackle the wildland fires that cost the economy millions of rands every year in lost farmland, forestry and productivity. Since its inception in 2003, the WoF program has recruited and trained an estimated 4,000 previously unemployed people. Many of them leave the program after two years to accept jobs in local government, forestry, nature conservation, the emergency services and security.
Fred Mokgope, WoF national program manager, says the program is geared toward lifting people up, poverty relief and integrated wildfire management. "There is a lot of talent in all our communities that is not being realized because people lack opportunity and resources to study further," Mokgope says. "WoF encourages people to take responsibility for their own development and not be put off by seemingly insurmountable obstacles."
For Khambule, 33, who is based in the KwaZulu Natal province in the eastern part of the country, building his house, where he now lives with his brother, Vincent, was his greatest achievement. "It was possible because I had a stable job with the Working on Fire Program," he says.
Implemented under contract by the FFA Group, WoF was founded to develop an integrated fire management practice in South Africa. It functions as a multimillion-rand job creation program that is supported by the national government. WoF firefighters are recruited from marginalized communities and trained in fire awareness and education, prevention and fire suppression skills.
Partnerships are the foundation of the WoF program. WoF promotes a shared-cost, shared-resource model as the most effective way to implement integrated fire management. The recruited men and women are deployed in Hot Shot crews of 22. They are fit and capable of assisting with fire suppression, but also teach communities about fire awareness and prevention. Because South Africa has two main fire seasons and there are huge tracts of land that require prescribed, controlled burning, the hand crews can remain active in fire awareness, prevention and suppression work throughout the year. During serious or extended fires, when local resources are exhausted and outstripped, WoF crews and aircraft are mobilized from all over South Africa to assist.
Khambule joined the program as an ordinary wildland firefighter. Today, he is a regional manager supervising four teams of wildland firefighters. He also promotes the establishment of regional fire protection associations and works on programs to develop awareness of wildland fire among tribal communities and farmers.
Over the past 12 years, officials from the U.S. Forest Service, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have shared their expertise and knowledge with South African firefighters because of the similarities between the United States and South Africa in terms of vegetation and the effects of fires on farms and wildlands. For example, U.S. prairies could be equated with the savannah grasslands, and the Californian chaparral vegetation burns in the same way as the Western Cape's fynbos. Inspired by the U.S. programs, the South African firefighting fraternity developed its own version to suit the local landscape.
This program has been extremely effective — so much so that firefighters from the United States now visit South Africa on observation and training programs. Currently, both countries are engaged in such exchanges in what has become a mutually reciprocal relationship. In fact, Khambule has received training from U.S. firefighters in Montana. "Going to America opened up the world to me," he says. "I have to say 'thank you' to WoF for getting me on my feet and showing me I can do anything if I put my mind to it."
Leoni Rooy lives in the Western Cape, 2,000 kilometers from where Khambule built his house. She tried out for a place as a wildland firefighter when her life had reached its lowest point.
"Two days before Working on Fire came to recruit in my town, Clanwilliam, I was looking for a hit from drugs, a marijuana cigarette or, at least, a drink of cheap wine," she says. "I was completely on the wrong track. I had dropped out of school, I was friends with the wrong people and I was heavily into drugs and alcohol."
Yet, something made her decide to compete for a place in a new WoF team being formed in Clanwilliam, a two-hour drive north of Cape Town. "I wasn't happy with myself, and when I heard WoF was looking for firefighters, I thought maybe this would be an opportunity to change myself."
Rooy never imagined to what extent her life would change. The discipline, physical demands and, most importantly, the respect she was given when she joined the program made her take a hard look at herself. "I never touched drugs and alcohol again. I left it, just like that," she says.
Six months after her recruitment, Rooy's leadership skills were recognized and she was sent to Cape Town for leadership training. She soon was in Mpumalanga for more training, where she caught the attention of WoF Training Manager Fred Favard, who, six months later, asked her to join his team of WoF training instructors.
"I was working with people from all our country's cultures, teaching them what I had learned, telling them about the life I had left behind, and encouraging them to make the most of what they were being offered," Rooy says.
She was also chosen to be on the WoF team selected to undergo training in Montana, and in 2007 was appointed an area manager, based at Fisantekraal, in the Western Cape. "WoF saved me from self-destruction," says Rooy. "Two of my friends who took drugs with me are dead; another two live on the street looking for their next fix. If it hadn't been for WoF, I would have been there as well."
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