ANC predicts more destructive fires
MORE misery and possibly deaths caused by informal settlement fires could be expected in the next few months, due to the DA’s apparent inability to address the province’s acute housing shortage, the ANC said.
This after a massive fire destroyed dwellings in Imizamo Yethu on Sunday, three years after a fire killed four people and displaced over 9 700.
In a statement, the ANC said each fire destroyed not only structures but families, and also took lives.
“How much longer must the poorest of the poor suffer because the DA , through its record of deliberate neglect, shows that it does not care about the poor? If it did, it would not have returned millions meant for housing to the national Treasury,” the statement said.
“We are tired of the DA’s usual distasteful habit of trying to evade responsibility for its housing failure, and pointing fingers at the ANC national government. We say to the DA: build houses because if you don’t, more desperate people will invade land.”
Mayoral committee member for human settlements Malusi Booi said after the large fire in Imizamo Yethu in 2017, the City planned to construct a so-called “super-block configuration” there, incorporating roads and designated areas for fire hydrants, but “some of the community leaders and groupings in the community did not agree to this approach”.
Booi said this would have allowed the City’s emergency services to access the area speedily.
“These planned roads would have been completed by now if we were allowed to proceed with the upgrading plans and innovative super-blocking initiative. This would have helped to prevent exactly these types of disaster conditions when fires break out.
“There is currently only one access road through Imizamo Yethu, and access is very challenging for the City’s emergency and basic services due to congestion on the road,” Booi said.
City Fire and Rescue Services spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said blocking would substantially reduce the number of structures damaged in a fire, as it created improved access for emergency services to deal with fires.
Khusela Ikhaya Project director Ashley Stemmett said the City’s blocking plan for hot-spot areas was still the best solution to the problem.
“Until all highly congested settlements undergo this, we will sadly continue to see this occurrence. We do believe that coupled with a fire-retardant coating, homes that are adequately spaced will stand a much better chance against any future fire outbreaks.”
Stemmett said every informal settlement had a particular layout or build pattern, and Imizamo Yethu’s layout and situation allowed for fire to spread rapidly up on the mountain slope, making it one of the City’s hotspot zones.