By Musa Simelane | 2024-11-02

The cloud of controversy around the recruitment of just over 100 fire fighters by the Eswatini National Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services (ENFRES) still swirls, as this publication has uncovered that the service recruited an ineligible 19-year-old teenager.

His recruitment was non-compliant to the requirements that were put out in an advert by ENFRES that ran between August and September 2023.

One of the requirements clearly stated that an applicant should be between 21 and 35 years of age. However, he was underage when his name surreptitiously made it into the list of the 100 fire recruits, surpassing thousands of others who were within the required age bracket.

This revelation alone underscores the well documented public outcry that the recruitment process was marred by sheer corruption. About 14 000 applicants were received, as was revealed by the Minister of Housing and Urban Development Apollo Maphalala in parliament in March this year.

allegations
Only 100 were successful in a recruitment exercise that became infamous because of suspicions of being devoid of transparency and fairness. There were allegations of nepotism and the involvement of individuals occupying influential positions in society who forwarded names of people they wanted recruited. 

There were also allegations that some of those who were covertly recruited did not even participate in some of the stages of the recruitment exercise. This, for instance, includes testing their physical strength and endurance. It is the stage where many applicants struggle to cope and then tap out.  

Meanwhile, the recruit in question, who said he turned 20 years old just two months ago, is now a fully-fledged fire officer, and was recently posted to one of the small fire stations in the Manzini region.

dream
As expected, he also participated in ENFRES’ debut Fire Day that was attended by His Majesty King Mswati III. The recruit whose identity is known to this newspaper but will not be revealed for now, said he was lucky to be in the right place career-wise. He views his employment by ENFRES as a dream start to life and to what he has always wanted to do from a tender age of 10.
Hailing from Maphalaleni in the northern Hhohho, he recalls that he had a habit of lighting up things with matches and then quickly putting out the flame.

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His peers even gave him the nickname associated with his habit. Like the rest of other lucky recruits, he spent about eight months in training by ENFRES.

“I saw the advertising post inviting applications for fire-fighter trainee recruits and I thought maybe I could add some value too in the service.

I’ve always wished to be a fire-fighter, it was my dream and it has come true. I’m proud of this achievement.  I feel like I’m in the right place and I’m grateful. Many people of my age are still not sure of what they want to do with their lives,” said the soft spoken young man.

By his own admission, he became a trainee fire-fighter when he was still 19 years old, but this did not deter him.
He took the opportunity that had been availed to him and went through training like everybody else. He did not just want a job but a career for which he would be passionate about.

In the two years he will spend in probation, he said his goal was to show up and learn as much as possible from the senior staff.
advantage

He wants to also further his studies as a fire-fighter after a while. His immediate supervisor said it was a great advantage for the service to have someone so young.

He is in a position to learn a lot and will get to share with the future generations for years before his time for retirement comes.
Meanwhile, ENFRES spokesperson Mandla Dlamini, when asked to shed some light on the clear violation of eligibility requirements in the recruitment of the young man, he said as far as he was concerned only eligible people made it onto the final list of recruits. He was not privy to information that there was flouting of the hiring process.

“But we will look into this matter to see if indeed there is someone who did not meet the criteria at the time of recruitment,” said Dlamini.

Speaking about the recent deployment of new fire-fighters to various fire stations around the country, he said new blood was very much needed in the fire service. The deployment has come as a big relief for the staff in several stations because they endured long spells of being understaffed. Be that as it may, the 2023 ENFRES fire fighter recruitment still remains a controversial talking point.

Early this year, at the peak of the recruitment storm, Mbabane East Member of Parliament (MP) Welcome Dlamini even challenged the ministry of housing and urban development, which is responsible for ENFRES, to  publicise all the names of the recruits. He said the ministry should do this if it felt strongly that the recruitment was fair and square.

The MP was reportedly quoted having said: “Minister, the fire recruitment was not above board and people are still complaining as we speak. Some believe they should have been among the recruits, yet you maintain that the process was fair.
 If you feel the process was fair and transparent, can the ENFRES publicise the list of the recruits, all 100 of them, so that it can stop this alleged corruption.

Word on the street is that only influential people’s children were selected and those who went through the entire process were left out. For transparency and confidence, publicise the list so we can see who are they and determine whether they deserve to be there.”

Furthermore, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) was said to have also been alerted about irregularities in the recruitment process.

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