Simelani Urges Cape Town Residents to Avoid Burnt Materials
Following the recent fire disaster in the City of Cape Town, Human Settlement Minister Thembi Simelane has urged affected residents to not rebuild their homes using damaged material.
Cape Town has experienced six fires since the beginning of the month.
“We are going to move around to encourage our people not to rebuild using burnt material because it is a health hazard,” Simelani said.
“We will be as a [nation] distributing building material to allow them to build.”
Simelani stated that new building materials will be expected to arrive on Sunday, the 29th of December.
Simelani added that more needs to be done to prevent residents from being affected by these disasters rather than working on a fast response upon emergency calls.
Simelane says the reason the department has not been able to come up with permanent prevention solutions is because of the overpopulation and closely built shacks in informal settlements.
“We are looking into a long-term solution, but fire blocking is not possible here, it is not relatively easy for the province or the city because of how congested the space is. In some areas, people build on the servitude “
Simelani urged residents to work with the government to help prevent being affected by wildfires.
“Disaster is about prevention and not about the response, so our intention is to try and prevent such disasters from happening every time in our informal settlements."
Simelani says the department is expecting more wildfires because of the wind, however, she hopes that this time they will be better prepared.
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