Help at hand for fire victims
The hundreds of East London residents who were displaced when a fire destroyed more than 100 shacks in Duncan Village had something to smile about on Thursday.
Buffalo City Metro and DA officials pitched in to hand over food and clothing items at the Gompo Community Hall.
When the Daily Dispatch visited the area which had been ravaged by fire on October 30, residents were busy rebuilding their shacks.
Ntombekhaya Nolawu said the devastating fire had started in her shack. “My daughter was cooking and left the stove on and went to fetch something from a neighbour and forgot she was cooking.
“When she came back the shack was on fire and the fire had already jumped to other shacks nearby.
“The fire left us with nothing but the clothes we were wearing and I see today that our municipality and the DA are here to help us,” she said.
“We are grateful that our surrounding communities are assisting us in our time of need.”
In two separate events, BCM mayor Xola Pakati and Eastern Cape DA leader Nqaba Bhanqa handed out food parcels, clothes and other equipment to the 300 families.
Pakati handed out food parcels containing samp and beans, cooking oil, flour, rice, clothes and household items that had been donated through The Help Duncan Village Fire Victims campaign at the Gompo Hall in Duncan Village.
“It is important that we provide relief to the poor and unemployed members of the public,” Pakati said.
“We have a challenge with informal settlements. We have 150 informal settlements and we can’t solve this overnight.
“We have an influx of people moving into the city looking for employment and they need to find space for accommodation wherever possible we need to provide services for those people,” Pakati said.