ZIMBABWE has been hit by a flight of experienced firefighters, industry experts said this week.
The bulk of those fleeing a deteriorating economic crisis
have settled in the Middle East, especially in the Gulf states of the United
Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar.
This week’s reports add more gloom to a country that has
already been hit by an unprecedented exodus of health professionals, 2 000 of
whom left by the end of November.
Thousands more professionals in other fields have also been
pursuing greener pastures out of Zimbabwe annually, with three to five million
of the country’s citizens now estimated to be living in foreign jurisdictions.
The Zimbabwe Independent was recently told that the Harare
City Council lost 125 employees from the fire department between 2020 and 2021.
Sources said the brain-drain has also affected other cities
across the country.
In their new destinations, firefighters are said to be
earning at least US$600 per month in basic salaries.
Harare City acting spokesperson Innocent Ruwende confirmed
that the city was experiencing a serious shortage of firefighters.
“I can confirm that we are having a shortage of
firefighters at the moment and there are vacancies for firefighters after 125
of them left the country,” Ruwende said.
“This is affecting the work schedule as some will have to
work for longer hours due to short staffing. We, however, have the capacity to
attend to fire breakouts, although there is a need to fill the vacancies.
“Council is working on addressing the workers’ concerns so
that we do not continue losing more workers to mainly UAE and Saudi Arabia.”
Ruwende said most firefighters leaving Zimbabwe end up
settling in North America, after spending a few years in the Gulf states.
Harare’s fire department was recently thrown into the
spotlight after the death of prominent banker, Douglas Munatsi, who died in a
mysterious inferno at his Northfields penthouse in the Avenues area.
A fire expert interviewed this week also confirmed that the
brain drain at most fire departments affected operations.
“You lose resources and time. This is being caused by low
remuneration offered locally and the poor working conditions where you are
expected to perform wonders without the requisite tools of trade,” he said.
Harare City Council fire department chief Clever Mafoti
recently said firefighting equipment was inadequate.
Other fire experts noted that most departments in Zimbabwe
were relying on donated tenders, especially from the United Kingdom.
The firemen, mostly employed in big cities and towns, said
several challenges, including obsolete equipment, low water pressure and
failure to access high rise buildings needed to be solved.
Firefighting equipment is expensive with a tender costing
approximately US$500 000.
Ideal equipment includes turntable ladders, extended
ladders or hydraulic platforms, which assist firefighters to access high-rise
buildings.
According to the Scientific and Industrial Research and
Development Centre (Sirdc), Zimbabwe has been losing valuable human resources.
Sirdc attributes the brain drain to professional and
economic causes.
“There are also pull-and-push factors. Some of the reasons
for the departures stem from poor execution of capacity building and domestic
policies, which result in imbalances between labour supply and demand,” the
centre said. “There is an urgent need to win back the confidence of the large
community of Zimbabweans of good will who are in the diaspora.
“The demand for qualified and skilled manpower for national
development has become a critical global issue. It is compelling to both the
rich and poor countries across the continental divide to develop policies and
strategies to satisfy their human resource demands.
“Since other countries are competing with Zimbabwe for
similar qualified human resources, a potentially rewarding solution might be to
formulate a skills export and import policy that promotes and provides the
framework for the training of human resources in Zimbabwe for the labour
markets of both target countries and Zimbabwe.” Zimbabwe Independent
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