Firstly, all the very best for 2021.
I cannot believe that eight months have passed since taking over the chairmanship. We are fortunate that at least now we have the hindsight of what happened in 2020, I hope we can all use this hindsight to improve in 2021.
As far as our FPA goes, we have had a good fire season and thanks to every one’s efforts and dedication towards being prepared, it paid off. We will continue to try and improve and be even better prepared for the next season.
We continued to improve the FPA infrastructure by implementing some projects that were identified at our previous strategic planning session. Unfortunately due to the uncertainty last year we had to hold back on some of the projects, until some large outstanding accounts were settled. This has now happened and we will continue with the most critical projects remaining, nl. the Warburton water supply and runway maintenance, amongst them.
We have held the first collaborative meeting with some of the grass farmers, regarding the rules for burning permits, pertaining to burning for grazing. We are reaching out to our members to become involved so that we can reach practical solutions, which is possible to execute, yet still responsible.
I would like to thank the exco and board for their support and especially Fred and the UFPA team for their dedication. Working under difficult conditions, ad hearing to regulations, implementing the new detection system and challenges with the communication systems.
Having said all this, there is always room for improvement and we will endeavour to do that, to better our FPA.
Last but not least, I would like to thank the outgoing chairman Mr Piet Bezuidenhout from SAFCOL, for the foundation he laid, after also taking over on short notice he gave us good direction to continue and build on.
Martin Buchler