Cosmo City Fire Station successfully opened

The building of the station started in the 2013/14 financial year and was completed in November last year.

MMC for Public Safety, Michael Sun, delivering the keynote address during the opening of the Cosmo City Fire Station. 

 Early yesterday morning protest outside the new Cosmo City Fire Station was contained by law enforcement officers, making it possible to continue with the opening of the fire station after the arrival of the City of Joburg’s MMC for Public Safety, Michael Sun, who delivered the keynote address on 1 March.

This state of the art, fully equipped facility, including an ambulance emergency unit which overall cost the City R33,5 million to build was celebrated and welcomed by many delegates of the City and residents who supported this idea.


The building of the station started in the 2013/ 14 financial year and was completed in November last year. The acting chief of the Emergency Management Services, Mhlengi Makhubalo, gave a brief overview of the reasons for the building of this facility.

    “This area was developed in 2008/ 9, and created a challenge in terms of our response time. We measure our response time to the community in terms of responding to fire calls,” he said.

    The public protest outside the new fire station. 

Makhubalo explained that area received services from various surrounding stations which at times did not meet the response time. “In terms of responding to fire calls, we must respond within 12 minutes and when we look into medical incidents, we must respond in nine minutes, but because the fire engines and ambulances were responding from different fire stations such as Hunters Hill, Randburg, Lonehill and Diepsloot, responding within a reasonable time was a challenge. This fire station thus had to be built to address the needs of the community as it continues to grow and develop,” he said, adding that in order for businesses to be attracted in the community, a strong emergency unit was needed.

Besides being situated in the community of Cosmo City, the fire station will also assist Zandspruit, Lanseria Airport, the North-West and trucks ferrying hazardous substances. Acting EFF councillor Donald Mabunda was excited that Zandspruit will benefit since it is no secret that fires break often break out there, especially during winter.

Sun, in his keynote address, made it clear that putting together this project was not an overnight job, saying, “This happy and joyous occasion did not come dropping from the sky, it required many hours, months and years of extremely hard work. We were put under strict oversight by the Section 79 committee, which really held us to account when it came to this station,”


    A brand new fire engine and two ambulances were handed over by the City. Sun said when the City received three new ambulances they decided to bring one to Cosmo City. Understanding the dire need for emergency services in the rapidly growing community.

    Sun said, “We understand that two ambulances may not be enough but we are working on getting two more so that at least we can achieve the service level of a thousand people to one ambulance.”

    MMC for Public Safety, Michael Sun, delivering the keynote address during the opening of the Cosmo City Fire Station. 

According to Sun, the building of fire stations has resulted in many more successes, reducing the number of fatalities to half of the 2016 figure.

MMC for Public Safety, Michael Sun observes the hoisting of the flags. 

Sun and other delegates from the City were taken on a site visit, during which they were shown the entire facility, which includes a swimming pool, that will be used by personnel to conduct rescue training and also be used to teach children how to swim.