How volunteers, farmers banded together to help extinguish Northern Cape veld fires

A farmer from Kathu in the Northern Cape who lost 1,200ha of grazing land in the runaway veld fires which ravaged the region this month believes efforts by farmers and nonprofit organisations working with authorities helped minimise the damage.

Fred Cawood, whose farm is 3,000ha, was still counting livestock but does not think he lost any animals in the fire. His farm's nearest point from the northern border of Lohatla is about 5km and he mainly farms Bonsmara cattle. He said the wind speed quickly worsened the blaze which started near the Khumani and Beeshoek mines on Friday.

Johan Rossouw, head of John Taolo Gaetsewe municipality's disaster management centre, previously told Sunday Times the fire from the mines crossed the N14 and spread through mining grounds and farms, and then into Lohatla military base. Six soldiers died and three were injured on Friday.

Cawood said the blaze spread to his farm around 1am on Saturday but through the efforts of fellow farmers, volunteers working with a security company and municipal teams, the blaze was extinguished just before 8am.

“The wind was very strong to our side from Lohatla but with the assistance of Rhino Security company, my guys and my partner in the farm as well as firefighters from the municipality, we managed to extinguish the fire,” he said.

Though he lost almost half of the grazing land, he said his livestock would be able to graze on the remaining portion which was undamaged.   

He was accommodating cattle of two other farmers whose land burnt during a veld fire in February on the portion of his farm which burnt over the weekend. The animals were able to be moved in time. 

“Those farmers took their cattle out of my farm early on Friday morning.”

Cawood, who has been farming in the area since 1965, said: “We will have to buy some extra fodder. This time of the year, in many cases before the rains, the livestock is not in good condition. It is just after the winter. You cannot start to graze on that land after the rain before it is grown out otherwise you ruin your grazing.” 

Andries Schoeman from Rhino Security and the RPU response team, an NGO which works with the farming community in the region, said the fire had spread very fast on Friday.

“The problem was the wind and the fire was spreading to many directions,” he said.

He said the farming community, including from Olifantshoek, firefighters from the municipality and the mining company worked together until the blaze was under control.

“We have two bakkies and two trucks that assist when there is a fire. We are doing it as NPOs and we rely on sponsors. All the farmers and the fire brigade assisted, I think for Friday and Saturday until Sunday morning. I think we had more than 50 vehicles that assisted in total,” he said, adding the mine assisted with water tankers. 

“It is not only grass here [Kathu]. It is very bushy so it is difficult to drive. I don't know what other people's cost was but our diesel alone was R15,000 for the four vehicles. That is without petrol for the engine pumping water.”

DA constituency leader Willie Aucamp said the region was drought-prone.

“We are at the end of the winter and it hasn't rained yet. The grass is very dry. The extent of the fire there was horrible and quite a large number of farmers have been negatively affected by this fire. They have lost their grazing and they now have to source alternative veld where their cattle and sheep can graze.

“Firefighters, teams of civilian organisations, farmer organisations who started firefighting teams, individual farmers were there with their own fire fighting equipment. That assisted a lot.

“If it wasn't for those people who were in the first line, literally fighting fire, the damage would have been much worse.”

The Northern Cape provincial government has been asked to help some farmers with fodder.

Aucamp said NGOs in the region had also jumped in with offers of help.

“We are getting calls from people in Kimberley, Upington, people are assisting and we want to express our gratitude to people who are opening up their hearts.”

TimesLIVE