A Critical Policy Review of the South African Fire Services White Paper

Abstract

The fire services are a salient contestation which are often overlooked by the Social Science scholars. The Department of Cooperative Governance has ultimately promulgated a White Paper on fire services in May 2020. This study therefore aims to review and examine the legislation with a purpose of traversing the intricacies entrenched within the fire landscape. The review and analysis of policies have the potential to analyse the realities and the misnomer which are a perfect avenue to create dialogue. The theoretical framework of manipulation and elitism are employed for attributing meaning towards the study perspectives for practicality and simplicity. The paper follows a systematic procedure of reviewing documents, and policies to elicit information as a methodology adopted for the study. Gaps identified in the White Paper are uncovered and fully discussed. The content was studied, contextualised, and synthesised intellectually to derive meaning on all the aspects. It is the contention of this paper to attribute meaning to policy improvement in the fire services with a consequential contribution to the world of science for sustainable development.