Can you imagine the utter tragedy of a farmer who’s lost his entire farm to the conflagration? I can. The day after the fires in Dewetsdorp one of these men phoned me. Not to report the damage or to supply additional info for my veld fire report. Just to talk. Just to tell me how terrible it was to witness one of his prize bulls burning to death.
Jack described his hellish experience in detail, the fear, the helplessness. And wept about the misery, the pain, the wanton destruction. And he’s just one of the victims of the many unnecessary fires that originated from municipal dumping grounds, Eskom and Spoornet installations and human negligence. Especially human negligence. I remember that one of last year’s worst fires was started by someone welding in the open veld in strong wind.
I’ll leave it up to you to decide just how stupid that was during the fire season in winter.
Back to 2012. And insult added to injury, because the fire victims are left in the lurch by an agricultural policy that doesn’t provide for disasters of this sort. I don’t know whether it’s official policy, or whether the decision-makers just couldn’t be bothered, but there are no measures in place to render short-term relief.
How difficult can it be to asses the damage, determine the needs and supply immediate relief in the form of animal fodder, for instance?
The farming community is totally reliant on itself to look after the veld fire victims. And it takes care of its own admirably. Its support means the affected farmers aren’t forced to sell valuable breeding stock and gives them the opportunity to start afresh as soon as the veld recuperates. Companies such as Voermol, Senwes and OVK also deserve a pat on the back for their support, which has gone a long way to lessen the inferno’s impact.
It’s to their credit none of the companies used this as a PR exercise – calling the media to witness the handing over of their generous donations. Everything was done in a quiet and dignified manner.
But Jack’s phone call will remain with me for the rest of my days.
It’s been said countless times, but please be aware of the possibility of veld fires! We can’t afford to loose valuable land year after year to fires that could have been prevented.
