Joint plan for fire-hit settlement

THE national and provincial departments of human settlements and the City of Cape Town have joined forces to find a permanent solution to prevent fires in Imizamo Yethu.

Four people died and about 15000 were left destitute when about 3500 shacks were destroyed by fire at the weekend.

Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, Deputy Minister Zou Kota-Fredericks, Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela and mayoral committee member for human settlements Xanthea Limberg visited Hout Bay this week to convey their condolences.

Yesterday Sisulu said: “It is clear that we have to find a permanent solution to this annual disaster. Our government programmes and different subsidies must be used to address the needs of the people.

“Developing permanent sustainable human settlements on this and other relevant land in the City must be considered a solution.

“The City must also manage the growth of informal settlements in the area by planning for urbanisation and inflow of young people.”

Madikizela’s spokesperson Ntomboxolo Makoba-Somdaka said discussions on permanent solutions were taking place. Development would start as soon as all parties reached an agreement.

“By upgrading, the plan was to service the land and allocate serviced sites to residents who qualify for a government subsidy. This means while people are waiting for the government to build them houses, they are waiting in acceptable conditions with access to water, electricity and proper sanitation.

“The government is going back to Imizamo Yethu this afternoon to present its plans to the community. This is very important as the people will be expected to relocate to make way for the development,” Makoba-Somdaka said.

Chairperson of the Imizamo Yethu Movement, Markiss Ndube, said residents were advised not to rebuild their shacks until the government had ordered containers for them to live in. But they had rejected this.

“Some residents are also afraid that development might benefit foreigners and not locals. They have decided to rebuild until government lets us know what development will take place,” Ndube said.

Some residents are living in tents erected on a nearby field.

Limberg said R30 million was spent on the distribution of more than 5 500 fire kits.

“The City estimates that more than R50m expenditure for the provision of services in terms of providing infrastructure for the resettlement of the community.

“We are spending approximately R1.58 million a day on solid waste clean-up operations,” Limberg said.