Cape Town - The City’s discontinued provision of building starter kits remained one of the greatest concerns as thousands of shack dwellers who were victims of shack fires that tore through parts of the city’s informal settlements struggled to rebuild their homes this year.
The biggest shack fire to have been recorded this year was in Joe Slovo, Langa in April, where 260 structures were destroyed, affecting 767 individuals.
This the residents labelled as a dark Easter weekend as the cause of the fire remained unknown.
Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Pam Tshwete, who visited the scene, revealed emergency funding from the National Human Settlement, Water and Sanitation department.
She alluded to residents being given proper houses, adding that “even if its a shack, it must be built properly, with proper roads to ensure access, water and sanitation”.
Masiphumelele informal settlement in Fish Hoek, which recorded two fires this year, had the second massive fire just as the year started.
Around 105 homes were destroyed, leaving more than 600 residents destitute.
Another October fire which flared up in the D-section of the area displaced 430 individuals.
In September Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay, a fire that erupted in the early hours of the morning as a result of a stove that was not switched off during load shedding ripped through 105 informal dwellings displaced 231 people, and killed two men.
The recent fire in the area was reported on Tuesday afternoon where 18 families were left homeless after 11 structures were destroyed.
However, the most tragic incidents occurred in the M section of the eNdlovini informal settlement in Khayelitsha last month where three minors died and another one was injured.
Inako Mbema, 13, Qamisa Mbema, 8, and Akhanyile Magamle, 4, are just three of the 190 people that Fire and Rescue Services spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said lost their lives owing to informal settlements fire this year.
Carelse said a total of 1 983 informal residential fires were responded to from the start of the year to date.
Electrical short circuits, smoking in bed, leaving open flames unattended while cooking/braaing, people under the influence of alcohol and arson were flagged as some of the causes of these fires.
Carelse said the City’s Fire and Rescue Service and Disaster Risk Management Centre conducted ongoing public education and awareness sessions in communities to mitigate the risk of fires.
NGO Gift of the Givers, in collaboration with local NGOs, was instrumental in providing immediate humanitarian relief to the communities in form of blankets and mattresses, toiletries and food and hot meals, and baby care packs.
Spokesperson Ali Sablay the organisation provided 100 000 meals and close to 30 000 blankets and mattresses to the fire victims. Sablay described this year as the busiest in terms of fire disasters.
Sablay said the organisation's warehouse was already packed and the team was geared up for any disaster that might occur in the next few days.
The City said it was the only metro in the country that provided building materials outside of a declared disaster, but the national grant cuts ended this programme.
“Therefore, the City does what it can to provide soft relief, enable humanitarian assistance, clear sites and debris for rebuilding, and assist where it can,” it said.
The City said it applied to the national disaster authorities for assistance to have incidents declared a disaster, in order to unlock disaster relief funds from the national government.