Delayed housing is leading to disasters, say communities

DELAYED housing developments in the metro have been blamed for the fire disasters, overcrowding, filth and sewage leaks and deaths in some marginalised communities.

On Thursday a Freedom Park informal settlement housing beneficiary, Elize Gilbert, 40, died at Groote Schuur hospital after suffering severe burn wounds during a fire on November 12. Her 23-year-old disabled daughter was injured in the fire.

This is less than a month since a 35-year-old man died in a blaze at Masiphumelele informal settlement in Capricorn, in a fire that destroyed about 150 shacks.

Survivors believe none of these tragedies would have happened if the City of Cape Town had prioritised housing in the areas.

Mauricia Gilbert, 19, said: “My mom waited too long for her house. None of this would have happened. Now we have to prepare a funeral all by ourselves while our sister is also critical in hospital. I feel so failed.”

They were temporarily relocated to the City-built structures five months ago to allow housing development to commence on their original sites.

“Residents were temporarily relocated in order to prepare the site for construction of Breaking New Ground homes and for serviced sites. The City’s Vrygrond housing project (Capricorn) is in the advanced planning stages. This housing project will provide 665 opportunities for qualifying beneficiaries,” said Mayco member for human settlements Malusi Booi.

“The City’s Informal Settlements Management Department continues to monitor all areas where the risk of fire is high.

“The majority of RDP houses’ yards accommodate more than three families in the back, all using the same facilities provided years back

ASANDA PENDU

Westlake resident

“The City is on the ground and has been working for many months to reduce fire risks in informal settlements through its education and awareness drive,” Booi said.

The backlog affects many areas, including the Westlake Village, where residents said they had been waiting since 2002.

The place is now crowded with shacks in the backyards of the RDP houses built nearly 20 years ago. The majority of RDP houses’ yards accommodate more than three families in the back, all using the same facilities provided years ago.

“The place is now too crowded it’s not even funny. We have had fire incidents, and the sewage leaks and dumping are escalating because the system and provided services are not enough to accommodate the capacity. We are afraid Westlake is going to be a statistic of tragedies if nothing is done. Because we’ve done so much to get houses to no avail, now we say to government, give us land and we put our shacks,” said resident Asanda Pendu.

Booi said Westlake had been considered when the allocation areas for projects in the vicinity were planned.

He said the City was hard at work with the roll-out of big projects across Cape Town.

“Some R2.8 billion in total has been allocated for human settlements over the next three years. In the last financial year, the directorate spent more than 97% of its grant funding for human settlements projects and programmes.”

The Gilbert family needs help to bury Elize. Contact Mauricia at 065 618 3153 or community leader Dennis Biggs at 071 096 1939 for donations.