FISA calls for support, expresses concern about the Master’s Office Johannesburg

The Fiduciary Institute of Southern Africa (FISA) has joined calls for urgent private sector support to alleviate the dire situation in the Johannesburg Master’s Office which has been without power for several days.

Louis van Vuren, FISA CEO, said : “The situation is untenable. It would appear that the landlord of the rented Master’s Office building has for years resisted installing back-up power supply, meaning that the office is subject to power outages beyond its control – in this case, a blown substation.

As a result, staff are unable to work and this is in a Master’s Office which is one of the most active in the country. We cannot understand why the authorities are not taking the situation more seriously and doing all that is possible to assist staff who are trying their best under impossible conditions. It is clear that the private sector needs yet again to step in and support what is a civil service function,” he said.

FISA has therefore taken the unprecedented step of approaching its members to consider making voluntary donations to assist with the purchasing of equipment for rechargeable lighting and mobile power stations for charging laptops, along with blankets and hot drinks.

In this FISA has joined the initiative by the Johannesburg Attorneys Association.