Fire victims of a recent devastating blaze in Hout Bay claim they’ve not yet received any help from the City.
About 500 Imizamo Yethu residents were left homeless this past weekend – when a fire ripped through the informal settlement destroying more than 100 shacks.
The Gift of the Givers’ Ali Sablay says they’re continuing to assist the affected group.
“We gave [the] community assurance [that] we’ll be there for the next five days, which ends on Saturday. Thereafter, we’ll do assessments with the community leaders to see what other further assistance they can require. We were supposed to distribute food parcels there but at the moment we cannot distribute food parcels – communities are still staying in the halls, some don’t have a roof over their head. Some of the community leaders have called us for building materials, unfortunately, we cannot provide that as yet – because where the fire has occurred, the land is not conducive for building.”
However, Ward Councillor Rob Quintas has rejected claims that they’ve not been helping.
He says their teams are indeed on site.
“We waited the course for the people to have some time to salvage belongings and materials, before solid waste went in to remove burned debris. Electricity services have already been on-site, and will be replacing all the legal meters imminently. And our informal settlements management… have already been on site and are busy in the process of replacing the water standpipes that were damaged by the fire.”
