The Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements has today expressed its heartfelt condolences to the families of victims who died in recent shack fires which ravaged the country’s informal settlements and left many homeless.
Committee Chairperson, Ms Nocawe Mafu, says people cannot continue losing lives due to shack fires resulting from lack of decent and adequate housing. “The National Department of Human Settlement, provincial departments of human settlements and municipalities need to expedite their efforts of providing our people with decent housing, brick and mortar houses to avoid these unfortunate incidents,” said Ms Mafu.
The Committee said this in the wake of recent shack fires which ravaged some of the country’s informal settlements this past week. Some of the areas which experienced these unfortunate incidents included Cape Town’s Imizamo Yethu Township, where three relatives were killed, leaving tens of people with no shelter.
Other two people died in one of the informal settlements in Durban on Tuesday. In Klerksdorp, two other people also died. Five other people died in Johannesburg’s Orange farm. Other shack fires were also experienced by residents of Langa Township, Cape Town.
Ms Mafu added that the Committee was aware of the department’s plans to upgrade informal settlements and provide decent housing to the people of this country, but said the Committee had always called on the department, provinces and municipalities to speed up the implementation of such plans.
The Committee assured South Africans that it would execute its oversight function of ensuring that the Department of Human Settlements achieves all the deliverables towards the creation of sustainable human settlements and improved quality of household life, in line with government’s programme of action.
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact:
Temba Gubula
Tel: 021 403 8307
Cell: 078 735 8809
Email: tgubula@parliament.gov.za
