Housing 'should be at the top of the agenda'A city NGO has slammed inadequate government planning for failing to address the devastating impact of fires in informal settlements, which have claimed more than 200 lives since 1999.
The organisation, Intern-Africa, was set up to educate communities on how to control fires and is advocating the right to adequate housing.
Chairman André du Plessis said his organisation had compiled an extensive database on fires from local media reports since 1999, after near-fruitless attempts at obtaining information from government departments.
Du Plessis said the organisation was horrified by the story in the Cape Argus yesterday of the three Moyeni siblings who were burnt to death in Site B, Khayelitsha.
Earlier in the week four-year-old Sihle Tono was killed in a shack fire in Samora Machel in Philippi.
InternAfrica has identified Joe Slovo, Khayelitsha, Philippi, Langa and Gugulethu as fire hotspot zones.
"When the front page says 'boy dies in shack fire', it means there is a mother, a father and grandparents left facing a terrible loss aside from the loss of their belongings," Du Plessis said.
"Fires in the Cape fire season have historically demolished hundreds of shacks in a few hours and this trend continues year on year."
According to statistics provided by InternAfrica, close to 40,000 shacks were destroyed between 1999 and 2007, leaving more than 200 people dead, 66 badly burnt and 149,000 displaced.
Last year 2,500 shacks were destroyed in blazes, 72 people died and 22 were injured and nearly 8,000 were displaced. - Cape Argus
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