HOMELESS, DESPERATE AND OUTCRIES
BCM councillors appeal for national funding to help Duncan Village fire victims
Buffalo City Metro is pleading for the intervention of provincial and national government to deal with the Duncan Village shack fires that left hundreds of residents homeless in October.
This comes after senior ANC councillor Luleka SimonNdzele submitted a motion in council last month proposing that the affected area in ward 2 be declared a disaster area and that an external intervention be requested.
In October, more than 100 shacks were destroyed, leaving about 300 people homeless.
The fire started when one resident apparently left a stove unattended while cooking.
In her motion, Simon-Ndzele said BCM was unable to deal with the crisis alone.
“This needs attention of both provincial and national government to intervene and assist our municipality in ensuring that we provide shelters and other basic services.
“We can’t do that alone as a metro,” she said.
“This is a matter of public importance because it has affected a huge number of people, children without clothes, people with disability and elderly people.
“As a council, we have a duty and responsibility that we improve the lives of our communities and this is one of social responsibility in ensuring that we provide services to the communities.”
Simon-Ndzele said most of the poverty-stricken victims were unemployed.
“Council agreed with the recommendations and supported the motion.
“The matter outstanding is the accounting officer to follow up the resolution and make all the necessary arrangements.
“We want them to be prioritised when there is a housing project because if we don’t prioritise them, they will build shacks again in that area and be affected by shack fires again,” Simon-Ndzele said, adding that President Cyril Ramaphosa had also visited the area following the disaster in 2018.
Ward 2 councillor Ntombizandle Mhlola said the victims had already rebuilt shacks on the same site.
“We have written to the national department of human settlements requesting funding for 100 temporary shelters to accommodate them but we are still waiting for a response.
“While we are still waiting, they rebuilt their shacks in the same dangerous and overcrowded manner they were initially in,” she said.
BCM mayor Xola Pakati said declaring the area a disaster area would enable the metro to get funding to deal with the disaster.
“We want them to get houses and if we declare the place as a disaster area we can tap into resources meant for disasters.
“That will mean we are then able to speed up the process of relocating them.
“The ultimate goal is to provide a permanent solution to the problem because shack fires happen all the time,” Pakati told the Dispatch on Sunday.
This is a matter of public importance because it has affected a huge number of people Luleka Simon-Ndzele
Senior ANC councillor