Grim Xmas for Cape Town fire victims

It will be a grim Christmas for many Capetonians after raging fires burned down homes in some of the poorest and richest areas of the city on Saturday.

Between 300 and 400 people were left homeless after a fire destroyed about 100 shacks at an informal settlement in Philippi on the Cape Flats, while by 7pm, a blaze still raging unchecked on the mountainside above uparket had gutted one home and damaged nine others.

Firefighters were Saturday evening also battling another fire, burning in veld in the Big Bay area on the eastern shore of Table Bay, and which city fire chief Piet Smith said was "running towards houses".

All three fires were fanned by a raging south easter.

City disaster management spokesperson John Brown said the shack fire, which started around 11am and spread rapidly, was put out quite quickly.

Those affected by the fire would be housed by the local community. The cause of the fire was unknown and no injuries were reported Smith told Sapa shortly after 7pm that ten Camps Bay homes had been affected by the raging on the slopes of Table Mountain.

"One was gutted, the other nine were just affected, damaged by fire," he said.

It is understood that the owners of the gutted home are away on holiday.

The houses hit by the fire were in Prima and Medburn roads, Camps Bay and Geneva drives, and Hely Hutchinson Avenue.

Helicopters, which have been on the scene since 11am, were still water-bombing the fire as darkness approached.

"It's not under control yet," Smith said.

The fire also licked round the corner of Table Mountain and burned an area of fynbos above the lower cable station before it was brought under control.

On Saturday evening firefighters were damping down flareups in trees above houses in the upper reaches of Gardens and Oranjezicht.

Off duty and reservist firefighters have been called in to fight the Camps Bay blaze along with teams from South African National Parks and Working on Fire.

City disaster management services spokesperson John Brown said every disaster management staffer had reported for duty, as well as a number of volunteers, members of the public from as far afield as Atlantis.

Earlier on Saturday afternoon, disaster management evacuated residents from several houses in Camps Bay.

The cable station and a number of roads in the area were also closed off.

Smith had earlier appealed to hikers on the mountain to leave the area. - Sapa

Don't build shacks under powerlines

Municipalities and electricity supplier Eskom are fighting an uphill battle to convince people in informal settlements not to build dwellings under high-voltage powerlines.

People living under the lines are in danger of being electrocuted should one of them snap and land on homes. Strong winds increase the chances of line breaks.

Maintenance teams who have to service the lines also have great difficulty in gaining access to them because of the high density of dwellings built below them.

Eskom and City of Cape Town officials have met with community leaders to emphasise the dangers of living underneath high-voltage lines, but sometimes this has been to no avail.

Eskom spokesperson Eone de Villiers said: "People who build houses or dwellings directly under power lines are not only breaking the law, but they are putting themselves, their families and their possessions at serious risk, as these lines are not insulated and carry power of a very high voltage.

"If a power line drops onto the roof, the roof becomes live as most of these houses are roofed with corrugated iron," De Villiers said. She again appealed to the public to stop building houses or dwellings underneath power lines.

Natural events such as lightning increased the risk. Because of storms, wind and general fault conditions the chances of lines snapping are increased.

"The risk of being injured is increased if power lines or conductors are damaged or their condition has deteriorated over time. There are also other possible disasters that could occur such as veld fires or lightning strikes that can cause the lines to drop," said De Villiers.

Marius van Rensburg, Eskom Field Services Manager, said people living under powerlines at times caused unnecessary power cuts.

"To take precautions and prevent possible electrocution of people, Eskom (sometimes has) to switch off the Auto Reclose (ARC) function of some power lines within the Eskom servitude," he said.

"Such outages could take up to two hours as a line patrol must be done on the line before an attempt can be made to re-energise these power lines. This means outages take much longer than expected and exposure to the dangers of contact is so much greater."

Relocating the illegal occupants remained the responsibility of the landowner, which in many cases was the local municipality. Van Rensburg said continuous contact was maintained with all municipalities to make them aware of the dangers to people living under powerlines.

Brian Jones, an engineer in the City of Cape Town electricity department said they were aware of the risks.

"We have had an education campaign comprising workshops in the area just to educate the people. The big challenge is, once the area is cleared how do you keep it clear (from invasion)?

"One strategy is to put it into other use, such as turning it into playing fields, or use it for agriculture. But this remains a big challenge because of the constant migration of people to Cape Town." - Cape Argus

Stay out, occupiers warned

Cape Town - The City of Cape Town on Friday warned that would-be occupiers of the incomplete national housing project - the N2 Gateway complex - would be violating the law if they carried out their threat of occupying the units.

In a statement, the city's director of human settlements, Seth Maqetuka, said the site near Langa was still a construction site and that there could be no accommodation available at this stage.

"It has come to the attention of the City that there are some members of the community around the N2 Gateway who have intimated that they would be invading those units that are deemed ready for occupation.

"It is critical to say that this would be illegal and those people involved in such an act would face the consequences thereof," said Maqetuka.

Part of the complex that generally looks complete still had some work to be done around it, for example landscaping.

Maqetuka said the process to allocate people to the units has been drafted and would be workshopped with all relevant stakeholders.

He appealed to all stakeholders to assist in this process and ensure fewer hold-ups in the allocation of housing in the Western Cape. - SAPA

Houses ‘are paid up’

ANGRY Lentegeur residents are refusing to co-operate with the Western Cape government’s ‘Krismis Box’ plan which promises to scrap rental arrears.

Earlier this year, Premier Ebrahim Rasool along with Housing MEC Richard Dyanti announced that plans would be made to finalise the housing issue.

“Because the Old House of Representatives didn’t do their job properly, we now sit with a housing problem that has to be solved,” Rasool told residents in one of the classrooms at Lentegeur Senior Secondary where the meeting was held.

“By Christmas the people of Lentegeur must feel that the problem has been solved around the housing issue which has been coming on for years.”

Rasool added that there will be definite relief for residents.

“For most people there’ll be great relief, but for others not,” he said.

“The housing MEC has applied his mind so that the arrears, the R12.5 million, could be reduced to just over R1 million. People can work with us to pay their outstanding debt which would be very minimal. Community development workers will inform residents what they owe and where to go for assistance. Our plan is to assist everyone.”

It was further stated by the head of the provincial housing department, Ms Shanaaz Majiet, that the local department of housing will be stationed in the area in the following weeks to inform residents of their balances.

However, a few residents are refusing to be involved in the process.

Mr Ebrahim Jenniker, a resident, said they are calling on the government to “prove where the arrears are coming from”.

Jenniker said many of the houses, were valued at around R14 000, were bought in 1987 and through resident’s own calculations, “we have already paid our houses finished”.

“In 1993 we already paid R7 200 on our homes. We were then told that we would receive R7 500. So if you add it up, by that time our houses were finished paid,” said Jenniker.

He added that because local government did not have any records, they “can’t answer where the arrears comes from”.

Ms Pat Debba, whose house was orginally valued R13 152, said she received a statement from local government stating that she had a balance of R85 000.

“Where does these arrears come from. We can’t ask questions because they don’t have the right answers. Housing is not a political issue, it is a human issue.”

Debba said many residents were questioning “where our money really went”.

According to Debba, although the houses were valued at around R14 000, certain residents have received statements of arrears totalling around R16 000, R25 000 and R81 000.

“Our receipts are worth more than our debt,” said Debba. She added that her own receipts added up to more than her arrears.

Another resident, Mrs Ragmat Gedaar whose house was valued at R12 656, is in possession of R26 000 worth of receipts. After a visit to the housing department’s points in Mitchell’s Plain, she has discovered that her arrears is R1 500.

Debba said the situation has infuriated residents.

“This is no Krismas Box. The people of Lentegeur want nothing for free, we have paid our houses and we want things to be resolved.” - MetroBurger

Province's R44m tender 'bungle'

A company that offered R44 million for part of the grounds of Jan van Riebeeck High School is planning to take the Western Cape government to court over an apparent tender bungle.

After dithering for 17 months about the offer for 2.4ha of prime land in Tamboerskloof, the province finally awarded the tender to a black empowerment company in October. In the meantime, however, the land had increased in value by R23m - from R43m to R66m.

Last month the provincial cabinet inexplicably reversed the decision and decided to call for new tenders, despite a handwritten note by public works MEC Marius Fransman expressing concerns about the delay.

Yesterday, Fezile Calana, chairman of Rowmoor Investments 490 - the company that lost out - said they intended issuing a summons against the province today.

"The summons will say that the government dealt with the tendering process unprocedurally," Calana said. "We will call on the court to reverse the decision.

It is intended to develop the property for housing.

Invitations to tender for the land were first advertised in April last year and closed that May 19.

Rowmoor Investments 490 offered R44m, nearest to the estimated value of R43m. But the province then delayed for almost 18 months before recommending Rowmoor be sold the land.

The document recording the decision to award the tender to Rowmoor was signed by Fransman and Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool, as well as several top provincial officials including the chief financial officer, the chief director of asset management in the treasury, the head of legal services in the premier's office, and the head of public works.

Under the points system used to award tenders in the Western Cape, Rowmoor, the second highest bidder, scored highest with 77.

The stated reason for awarding the tender to Rowmoor was that it "lends itself favourably insofar as transformation and empowerment are concerned".

Based on this, the departmental monitoring and evaluation committee issued a report on September 1 last year concurring that the tender should be awarded to Rowmoor.

The tender document was submitted to the Western Cape property committee in February. Its members then split over the tender award.

The committee recorded its concern about the time that it had taken to evaluate the tender and in its submission to the cabinet, recommended the entire process be scrapped due to the delays.

The Department of Public Works overruled this and said that "although the market value may be much higher at this stage, the tenderers should not be penalised for the delay (almost a year)".

Concerns were noted in the resolution recommending the sale of the land to Rowmoor, including the fact that the assessed value of the land had increased by R23m - from R43m to R66m - since the first tender had been issued.

Despite this, the resolution recommended that Rowmoor be sold the land.

Fransman, who is in Cuba and could not be contacted for comment, signed the tender documents. In a hand-written note alongside his signature, he noted his concern at the "unnecessary delays in the bureaucracy" in the processing of the tender.

Fransman wrote that he concurred with the steps taken by his predecessor, Mcebisi Skwatsha, in awarding the tender. These included having "processed the matter to the premier".

The Cape Argus has the September 30 note from Fransman to Rasool, recommending the tender be awarded to Rowmoor. Signed by director-general Gilbert Lawrence and other top officials, the document was approved by Rasool on October 3.

But in an about-turn last month, the provincial cabinet decided to scrap the entire tender process.

Documents in the Cape Argus's possession, which include cabinet minutes dated November 2, show a decision was taken to reopen the tender and that "new offers to purchase be sought for Erf 1526 in Tamboerskloof".

The minutes of the cabinet meeting do not give reasons for the reversal.

In addition, the cabinet said the Department of Transport and Public Works had to ensure "all reasonable steps are taken to speed up the process of accepting an offer to purchase and awarding a tender".

The cabinet minutes state that the department is responsible for informing Rowmoor and other tenderers of the decision. The department is also responsible for inviting them to submit new offers.

But Rowmoor's Calana said his company had been told only two weeks ago that the property would again be put out to tender - and then only after its lawyer had asked for details on how far the process had gone.

Under the original tender conditions, the department reserved the right to negotiate further with the successful applicant on any aspect related to the tender.

But Calana said Rowmoor had not been consulted about the increased value of the property. His company had a copy of the second valuation, which it found "totally challengeable".

At the time of going to press the province had not replied to questions about the tender e-mailed last week. They were faxed yesterday.

Timeline

April 2004: Tenders are invited for Erf 1526, Tamboerskloof, vacant land of about 2.4429ha.

May 19, 2004: Deadline - 34 tenders are received.

September 1, 2004: Department of Transport and Public Works monitoring and evaluation committee approves the award to Rowmoor Investments Pty Ltd, which received the highest points.

September 20, 2005: Thami Manyathi, head of department, Transport and Public Works, signs the tender.

September 27, 2005: MEC Marius Fransman signs the tender.

October 3, 2005: Premier Ebrahim Rasool signs the tender.

November 2, 2005: Provincial cabinet decides that new offers to purchase be sought for Erf 1526. - Cape Argus

Heating up our health

The World Health Organization estimates that over 150 000 deaths every year since the 1970s can be directly linked to climate change. Leonie Joubert takes a look at health stresses facing the Cape where, ultimately, it is the poor who suffer most.
The heat wave which swept through Europe in the summer of 2003 pushed temperatures up 3.5°C higher than average, resulting in what was probably the hottest summer that region had experienced in 500 years. The journal Nature reports this month that during two weeks about 22 000 to 45 000 deaths* in the region were caused by this weather phenomenon. Most of these occurred among the elderly and infirm where heart and respiratory complications due to heat stress eventually proved fatal.

Exposure to temperature extremes can be expected across the Western Cape as a warming trend sweeps the region in the next 50 years. These episodes could be exacerbated in cities where urban heat islands (where heat is trapped over cities due to a complicated interaction of evaporation processes, impervious surfaces and changed vegetative cover) could push the temperature up by 5 to 11°C on that experienced outside of the city.

Economically marginal communities - which in many cases includes the farm labourers tending the Cape's vineyards - are expected to be hardest hit as informal or poor housing is not insulated against the heat.

The World Health Organisation and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predict that climbing temperatures and changing rainfall regimes will increase the spread of infection diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. The incidence of diarrhoeal disease and salmonella-related food poisoning can also be expected to climb while changing weather patterns will undermine food security, leading to malnutrition and increased vulnerability.

Malaria and similar diseases aren't associated with the Cape but tuberculosis (TB) is the most important communicable disease in the region, with the prevalence increasing sharply in recent years due to the HIV/AIDS incidence. A report into the vulnerability of the Cape to climate change, released by provincial government in mid-2005, said that because TB is linked to the standard of living conditions and climatic conditions, this association will have to be scrutinised more closely in future.

Extreme events such as floods, also expected to increase in the region, will seriously impact poorer communities living on the Cape Flats particularly as sewage and storm water systems are compromised by flood water. This could lead to outbreaks of water-borne diseases associated with diarrhoea.

Food security is expected to be stressed by the increase in drought and flood events. As is so often the case in times of famine, it is not a complete lack of food which leads to starvation and death, but a lack of money to buy increasingly expensive food. Once again, it is the poor who suffer most in times of food shortage. Should food supplies drop, malnutrition will leave these communities more vulnerable to illness and the opportunistic infections associated with HIV/AIDS.

The provincial report admits that it is 'not clear at present what health impacts a change in temperature would have in the Western Cape' but does list the above issues as ones which could impact the region as the Cape warms and dries and experiences increased extreme weather events. When it comes, the impact will be counted in lost work days and cost of treatment. Ultimately, though, it will be measured in the loss of human life not only to the economy, but also to the families of those left behind. As Nature again points out: given the bulk of the pollution causing this fallout in vulnerable countries such as Africa originates in developed countries so many thousands of kilometres away, climate change is a 'global ethical challenge'.

*Last month's column Pay up for flooding my vineyard! said that 14 000 deaths were attributed to the heat wave. Both figures originated in Nature but from different papers. - SA WineNews

Cape Town seeks extra R750m for housing

CAPE TOWN — The Mother City needs an extra R750m a year over the next five years to eradicate its housing backlog, mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo said yesterday.

This would help the city meet its target of 20000 houses a year for the next five years and reduce the backlog of 260000 houses, she said at a meeting that included President Thabo Mbeki and Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.

Providing houses at this pace would enable the city to replace 100000 informal structures with appropriate housing by 2014, the deadline set by government to eradicate slums, she said.

Cape Town, which has doubled in size over the last 20 years, faces an influx of about 16000 families a year from rural areas because it is the only metropolitan area within a radius of 700km.

Mfeketo also urged Mbeki to speed up the release of available government land for housing at sites such as the military bases at Youngsfield, Ysterplaat and Wingfield.

Mfeketo was addressing Mbeki and other cabinet ministers, including Sisulu, Environment and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk and Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool at a municipal imbizo — part of Mbeki’s nationwide consultation with local government linked to the Project Consolidate service delivery programme.

Project Consolidate, launched last year, supplies technical, administrative and financial expertise to 136 of the country’s 284 municipalities. Eleven years after the end of apartheid, many local authorities have been unable to supply their residents with basic services such as water, power and sanitation.

The ninth and final imbizo in the series was concentrating on Cape Town and specifically Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain, which make up a third of the city’s population.

It was the first time that all three tiers of government have gathered to discuss the problem areas surrounding service delivery, economic development, transformation, financial viability, good governance and community participation.

Sketching what she called was a serious challenge to the city, Mfeketo also called on the national treasury to lift the city’s budget ceiling from the current R900m to R1,2bn for five years to assist the city to increase its spending on housing relative to the rest of its budget.

Mfeketo said the city received a national housing grant of an average of R325m a year and based on government’s subsidy formula for first time buyers this would build an average 7750 units a year. This amount only catered for 48% of the new inflow of home seekers into the province and would “not even begin to impact on the existing backlog”.

Mfeketo also said there was a need to identify settlement opportunities along the west coast and to the north of Cape Town.

Summing up the deliberations Mbeki said anything government did would succeed or fail depending on what was achieved at local government level.

He said the imbizo had agreed that the metro council, provincial and national government would meet early next year to assess what needed to be done to speed up developments in housing, service delivery, job creation and crime. - Business Day - News Worth Knowing

2000 shack fires in Cape Town

Cape Town - More than a hundred people have died in nearly 2000 shack fires in the City of Cape Town so far this year, the city's communications division said on Tuesday.

The total number of shacks destroyed was estimated at over 8000, leaving some 28 000 people destitute.

The total cost of providing relief for fires in informal settlements for the year would be over R13m, a figure which excluded the cost of actually fighting the fires.

The relief given after a recent blaze at the Doornbach informal settlement alone amounted to R2.1m.

This included the cost of a rebuilding starter kit, two meals per person per day, one blanket for every individual and a special social grant from the provincial government.

City fire chief Piet Smith said the city had launched an awareness campaign to alert residents and visitors to the dangers of fires.

Fire and rescue services, and disaster management staff had been distributing safety pamphlets at informal settlements.

Fire engines have been going to the settlements to familiarise crews with the areas and to meet inhabitants to educate them on fire safety. - News24

Mixed reaction on Cape housing allocations

There has been mixed emotions from 1 000 families who received empty plots and communal toilets at De Doorns in the Hex River Valley in the Western Cape.

Richard Dyantyi, the Western Cape housing and local government minister, who was expected to explain why there are no houses, failed to pitch up. Some families who have been on the housing list for over 10 years, have expressed dissatisfaction with the empty plots, while others who lived in a nearby informal settlement have shed tears of joy in an expression of happiness.

Thobeka Madikane (38), a local resident, says she has spent her entire life in a shack having to share a toilet with hundreds of her neighbours in a river bed. With tears in her eyes and gulping for breath, she says her plot of land although almost bare, and her toilet that she has to share with four other families is a dream come true. Manny Sotomi, the chief director for housing and planning in the province, says handing over vacant plots, earmarked for development is not ideal but the best solution to the housing crisis. - SABC

Corrupt municipalities named

Cape Town - Emfuleni in southern Gauteng is one of five municipalities the Democratic Alliance "named and shamed" on Wednesday as among the most-corrupt, inefficient and financially mismanaged in the country.

Emfuleni includes the towns of Sebokeng, Sharpeville and Vanderbijlpark.

Briefing the media, DA provincial and local government spokesperson Willem Doman said the inability of many South African municipalities to deliver had reached crisis proportions.

Releasing a DA report on what it termed "the rot in African National Congress municipalities", he said factors such as corruption, financial mismanagement and under-qualified and overpaid officials, were undermining attempts to mend this situation.

An example was Emfuleni, where more than a quarter of households didn't have access to water, almost the same number were without sanitation, and the housing backlog stood at 65 688 homes.

Corruption and nepotism

According to 2001 figures, the municipality was home to about 658 000 people, most (almost 85%) of whom were black.

Doman said it had been identified as one of 136 municipalities that needed to be "rescued" by the national government.

Doman said: "Emfuleni has failed to receive an unqualified report from the auditor-general for the past three years, and has been blighted by corruption and nepotism.

"The most notable was the R1m kickback received by council officials last year for selling off council assets at prices considerably lower than the market rate.

"The discovery earlier this year that the chief financial director has employed his wife, his two sons and his daughter in his department was an astonishing case of nepotism."

Despite the municipality's shocking state, the municipal manager received a R150 000 performance bonus on top of his R775 000 salary this year.

Culture of non-payment

According to the DA report, Emfuleni had "the worst culture of non-payment of all municipalities in the country", with a debtor collection period of 489 days.

The ANC-run municipalities of Phumelela in the Free State, Greater Kokstad in KwaZulu-Natal, Mbombela in Mpumalanga, and Bitou in the Western Cape also exemplified "the rot at local level".

Doman said Bitou, which included the up-market tourist town of Plettenberg Bay, "illustrates that even municipalities that have a fairly good revenue base can compromise delivery through poor financial management and corruption".

"Bitou was declared bankrupt last year by the Auditor-General."

He said the AG's report had revealed details of unauthorised credit card expenses of more than R100 000 by Bitou municipal manager George Seitisho, who had also taken irregular loans of up to R250 000. - SAPA

Cape Peninsula fire leaves one dead, four injured

The second fire that hit the Doringbach section of the Du Noon informal settlement in the Cape Peninsula has left one person dead and four others slightly injured. The fire broke out early this morning.

Residents say they have not been able to determine the cause of the fire. The fire follows reports that two additional fires were deliberately started after yesterday's devastating blaze, which destroyed about 500 shacks.

Wilfred Solomons, a spokesperson for the Cape Town disaster management unit, says about 300 shacks were gutted in the latest fires, which broke out at around midnight.

Meanwhile, Richard Dyantyi, the Western Cape local government and housing minister, says they plan to move the community from the area as soon as appropriate land becomes available. Dyantyi visited Doringbach section today. He promised that his department will speed up its processes to properly house this community.

"People settle where they see an empty piece of land and sometimes where they settle it is not necessarily a place meant to settle people where you would have hydrants and other amenities, but when they are here you can't then say they can't be here. All we need to do really is to up our pace in terms of how we move forward about what we need to do about them it might not necessarily be here but we look into speeding up that process." SABC

Today - I am the JAM

LOCAL COMMUNITY JOIN IN UNPRECEDENTED GLOBAL EVENT:

CITIZENS UNITE ONLINE TO DEBATE URBAN SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES DECEMBER 1-3, 2005

(Cape Town) — Issues of key interest to the south Africa region, including Cities, Shacks, Alternative Housing and Sustainable development will be part of the Habitat JAM, an unprecedented online global conversation and collaboration. Local residents and experts are joining together to ensure the western Cape is heard during this global 72-hour Internet event to be held December 1-3, 2005.

This revolutionary form of democratic discussion was introduced as part of the preparations for the third session of the World Urban Forum, which will be held in Vancouver, Canada in June 2006. The Habitat JAM will help forge a holistic view on some of the most urgent and controversial urban issues, to turn ideas into action.

The Habitat JAM will connect tens of thousands of academics and students, planners and builders, politicians and ordinary citizens from across the globe in real time, all contributing ideas and expertise to the global problem solving session. Moderators will include government leaders, celebrities, royalty, and key thinkers. The purpose of this Internet discussion is to find actionable ideas to solve key urban issues, such as:

· Improving the lives of people living in slums

· Sustainable access to water in our cities

· Environmental sustainability in our cities

· Finance and governance in our cities

· Safety and security in our cities

· Humanity: the future of our cities

“By organizing local events and providing access to internet technology, we hope to include as many local points of view as possible to bring into the Habitat JAM,” says Andre du Plessis from InternAfrica. “To solve these urgent and controversial issues which affect our region’s cities, we need to ensure the World Urban Forum hears from us directly.”

This unprecedented 72-hour internet event needs your point of view.

Imagine the results that could be achieved.

Go to http://www.habitatjam.com/ to register and take part.
The World Urban Forum is an initiative of the United Nations Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT), and is held every two years. World Urban Forum 3 will bring together as many as 100,000 people to debate ideas and issues about urban development in a global context of rapid change. “We all need the technology and the information to enable us to participate in the process of lifting up our living environment,” adds Dr. Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director, UN-HABITAT.

Tell your friends and colleagues about the Habitat JAM!