Rethink policies to stop fires

IN THE EARLY hours of Saturday on January 15, 2005, a devastating fire upended the lives of thousands of residents of Joe Slovo settlement, Langa.

That tragedy, in which 12 000 people were left homeless and an infant died, was supposed to be the catalyst for a new approach to low-cost, government-subsidised housing.

Cape Town currently has a housing waiting list that exceeds 350 000, and the N2 Gateway project was supposed to significantly dent this figure.

In subsequent years the government would spend billions of rand to build housing units to replace the shacks in Joe Slovo, Boystown (Nyanga) and Delft.

But despite the push to eradicate shacks, there has been resistance from many within Joe Slovo who thrive on, and profit from, the chaos brought by informal settlements.

Many of the housing units, built at the N2 Gateway project to benefit shack dwellers after the fire in January 2005 are today rented out, with some of the original occupants returning to live in shacks.

On Saturday a fire tore through Joe Slovo again, leaving more than 1 000 people homeless. Emergency vehicles could not get where they were needed because parts of it were made inaccessible.

While most residents of informal settlements are law-abiding, we can’t skip the fact that informal settlements like Joe Slovo and Marikana (in Philippi) have become havens for criminals, serving as convenient hideouts for those on the run.

The risk of criminal attacks means that City workers cannot access these areas, and police patrols are nonexistent, with cops only being seen after a murder which attracts media attention.

According to the City of Cape Town, most of the land invasions which happened during the first Covid-19 lockdown were organised by criminal syndicates involved in “shack farming”, in which occupants have to pay to “rent” a shack.

These informal settlements often come without utilities like electricity and piped water, thus devastating fires occur with frequent regularity.

All three spheres of government seriously need to reconsider wellintended housing policies such as the N2 Gateway, which have proven to be far off the mark. Instead of these eradicating shacks, there are now more shacks in the area surrounding Langa than there were in 2005.