The recently launched private firefighting service by Fidelity ADT is ‘unlawful’, and no agreement is in place for it to operate in Cape Town, says the city’s Fire and Rescue Service.

Fidelity SecureFire, a subscription-based private firefighting service, launched in June in Cape Town. 

Moneyweb reports that it has been operating in Gauteng since 2023. It is also active in Durban, East London, Gqeberha and Bloemfontein.

City of Cape Town’s chief fire officer, Clinton Manuel, said he wrote to Fidelity in May informing the company that the service is ‘unregulated’.

Private firefighting services are gaining traction in Gauteng.

In 2022, Discovery launched its private fire service in Johannesburg. However, the City of Tshwane recently initiated court proceedings against private firefighting providers.

The city filed papers in order ‘to enforce compliance with applicable legislation’, it said in a statement.

The city said the operations present challenges for the city’s command and control structures during emergencies, ‘compromise incident scene management and draw water from municipal fire hydrants, which violates city bylaws’. 

At the centre of the legal controversy is whether firefighting service is earmarked as an exclusive function of municipalities in the Constitution, Die Burger reports.

Manuel argued that it is such an exclusive function which cannot be contracted out. 

The City of Cape Town therefore instructed its fire brigade to instruct Fidelity’s SecureFire to leave scenes.

But Fidelity’s Wahl Bartmann says they have obtained several legal opinions and there are no laws prohibiting private firefighting services.

He argues that the service is supplementary and only available to clients with whom Fidelity has a contractual relationship.

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