Fire victims still without housing
MORE than a month after a devastating fire tore through the hamlet of Wupperthal, the residents who were left homeless are still having to stay with neighbours as no temporary accommodation has been provided for them.
At least 200 people were left destitute by the fire on December 30.
The small Cederberg town saw its Moravian Mission Station, clinic and town hall go up in flames.
The Moravian Church of Southern Africa made land available for emergency housing for the victims of the devastating fire at the Moravian Mission Station.
But after more than a month, nothing further has been done for the community.
A committee set up a day after the fire had written to the Moravian Church for assistance, committee secretary Anville Koopman said.
“We, the committee, only heard this week, February 4, that the Moravian church signed the documents for the temporary housing after the fire in December.
“Meanwhile, the affected people are staying with family members and friends. Now you can imagine how long it still will take in order to get the people in these temporary houses.
“All that the affected community members ask is for the temporary housing, and the removal of the asbestos so that they can go back and start rebuilding their houses. “Even as we speak, there are family members who are still without electricity,” Koopman said.
Gottfried Webster, a concerned citizen who has been assisting the Wupperthal Community Support Group, said the affected residents could not stay in other people’s homes forever.
“Temporary accommodation is one of the things that should have been very high on the priority list for obvious reasons (for example, privacy, dignity, etc). The displaced people, many elderly, are asking for a roof over their heads.
“I’m very disappointed to learn that, after five weeks, no temporary housing has been provided after all the promises soon after the disaster.
“I’m concerned about the lack of control and planning, as most people, even community leaders of Wupperthal, are in the dark about the immediate plans to alleviate the plight of the Wupperthalers,” Webster said.
Attorney and human rights activist Melene Rossouw was disappointed to learn about the ongoing plight of the Wupperthalers, particularly in light of all the support that poured in immediately after the disaster.
“My involvement in this particular matter was spurred purely from a human rights perspective. I am an attorney by profession and human rights activist, and when I was approached for legal advice on this case, I was appalled to hear that the victims of the Wupperthal community were still not provided with temporary housing almost a month after the fire incident.
“For me, that was a clear case of an infringement of the victims’ most basic human rights, in particular the right to human dignity, the right to privacy, the right to access to adequate housing within the context of emergency relief and the right to public participation/ engagement.
“We need to understand that our final Constitution, specifically the Bill of Rights, affords all people equal rights and dignity that must be respected, protected, promoted and fulfilled and that no law or institution, whether it is the church or government, is superior to the Constitution,” she said.
“Part of my work is to educate people on their rights and responsibilities so that situations like this never take root.
“The people must be involved in decisions that directly impact their lives, and surely we must move away from the top-down approach of governing and genuinely start engaging with the people as equals and not second-class citizens in a democratic state,” Rossouw said.