30 August 2007
Sabie, Mpumalanga: The Minister of Public Enterprises, Mr Alec Erwin,
visited the fire ravaged areas of Komatiland Forests (KLF), a subsidiary of
South African Forestry Company (Ltd) (Safcol), in Mpumalanga today.
The fires started on Friday, 27 July and were fought bravely for 8 days by
Komatiland Forests' employees working on fire and by other contractors. About
17 400 hectares (ha) of Komatiland plantations were affected by the fires and
this will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the availability of softwood
saw log resources in the medium and longer terms.
Safcol have provisionally estimated the costs of fire fighting, harvesting,
transport, wet storage of timber, site clearing and re-establishment which will
be incurred as a result of the fires. However at this stage, it is too early to
tell the exact financial implications.
This has been the biggest fire incident recorded in the history of
Safcol/KLF.
Enquiries:
Mr Leslie Mudimeli
Spokesperson KLF
Cell: 082 804 9311
Ms Lulu Bam
Tel: 012 431 1122
Cell: 078 378 5409
E-mail: Lulu.bam@dpe.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Public Enterprises
30 August 2007
Source: Department of Public Enterprises (http://www.dpe.gov.za)
