Blowi informal settlement residents in Town Two have been left licking their wounds after a devastating inferno destroyed 46 shacks on Friday last week.
A total of 156 people are now without homes and looking for assistance. They are now appealing to the City of Cape Town to provide them with houses, claiming to have been neglected for over three decades.
Resident Nosive Nyingindwe said the fire broke out just after 20:00 on Friday 6 June.
She said she was busy cooking at the time. “I was busy stirring the pot when my son mentioned he was smelling something. I went to investigate through the back window and saw flames in the shack behind mine,” said Nyingindwe.
Immediately, she went outside and screamed for help.
She then returned to the shack and instructed her 13-year-old son to move out. She swiftly aided her bedridden husband to safety.
According to Nyingindwe, everything that was inside her shack caught fire. “My shack and the one where the fire started were so close in a sense that when I went out to call the community the smoke started to come into my shack. When I came back, I was unable to take out my belongings because the flames were starting to spread to the whole shack,” she explained.
Nyingindwe now faces a monumental task rebuild her shack. “I’m unemployed. No one is working. We survive through government grant. For now, we are squatting with the family members,” she said.
Local SANCO chair Lubabalo Msutu said they suspect candlelight as the cause of the incident. He said for nearly two weeks the area had no electricity. He stated that they don’t think they will ever get houses. “We have been staying in this area for more than 30 years. The majority of people have been here since the establishment of the area. When the area was developed some of us had to move away for the houses to be built. We’ve been here for so long and we are still waiting,” said Msutu. He added that the area was congested and that caused firefighters difficulty in times of trouble.
The majority of the victims are struggling to rebuild their homes as they do not have money to buy new building material, added Msutu. He said they rebuilt their structures with the old material just to mark their plots.
Ward 93 councillor Thando Pimpi described the situation as bad. He urged the community to contribute with whatever to help the victims.
“The City officials, including the Gift of the Givers and other organisations, were here to assess the situation and provide food to the victims. We are appealing to the community to donate with whatever they can,” said Pimpi, adding that the issue of houses in the area is not clear.
