Concerned about shack fires

AS a councillor serving on the safety and security standing committee of the Nelson Mandela metro council, I am hugely concerned by the number of shack fires as reported by the disaster management sub-directorate. No less than 27 shacks burnt down and 91 persons were affected from January to March, a scant three months.

Tragically, there were also lives lost in these shack fires. Disaster management issued relief to the affected households to the value of R40270 in the form of blankets, food, primus stoves and so forth, at an average cost of R442.53 per person, which will not provide sustenance for a reasonable period!

We must question why the residents of this metro are still compelled to live in informal dwellings, which puts them at such a grave risk of these fires as they attempt to stay warm in the bitterly cold weather.

Slow housing delivery and poorly built RDP houses compel these, the poorest of the poor, to bear the brunt of the social ills which beset our communities.

Local government should look at ways to prevent shack fires by supplying households with electricity to rule out the use of candles, paraffin lamps and primus stoves. It must source increased funds from provincial government in order to speed up housing delivery.

Communities must also be educated in terms of safety awareness campaigns where they are still compelled to make use of those lamps, candles and primuses.

As we are now in the heart of winter, I ask readers to imagine the misery of the shack dwellers in their flimsy shelters, and add their voices to those of myself and my fellow councillors to press officialdom to address these problems as a matter of absolute urgency.

DA councillor Tyrone Adams, member: safety and security committee, Nelson Mandela Municipality