Cape Town - The City’s Disaster Risk Management Centre has called for a clear national strategy to deal with the complexity of rapid urbanisation and informal settlements which it said was long outstanding and should urgently be addressed by the various spheres of government.
This was a recommendation contained in the 2021/2022 report recently tabled in the council meeting which identified unlawful land occupation as a problem that leads to vulnerability and high-risk conditions.
The 2020/21 period saw a spate of unlawful occupations that started in March 2020 during the national Covid-19 lockdown and reached a peak in July and August 2020.
This was noted by Mayco member for human settlements Malusi Booi. Booi said these occupations led to the establishment of 54 new settlements of various sizes across the city.
In the report, informal structure fires topped the list of 34 hazards that could impact the City followed by civil unrest, floods, severe weather and communicable human diseases.
This is according to the disaster risk assessment undertaken by a service provider which compared these hazards ranging on a risk rating from extremely high to low.
This assessment was handed over to the Disaster Risk Management Centre in February 2021.
A significant informal settlement fire during the financial year was reported in Jim se Bos, Mitchells Plain, close to the Philippi horticulture area informal settlement, on August 15 last year, which destroyed 195 structures and displaced 565 people.
Disaster Risk Management spokesperson Charlotte Powell said the number (3 760) of emergencies that the centre responded to increased by 677 compared to the previous year.
Powell said this was mostly related to the increase in fires in informal settlements and flooding during winter.
Powell said that unlawful land occupations jeopardised emergency and basic service delivery, stretched City resources, and threatened housing and informal settlement upgrade programmes.
Khayelitsha BM Section community leader Thobile Funani said shack fires were mostly caused by neglect by community members and illegal electricity connections.
“The loss that comes with these shack fires must be motivation enough for shack dwellers to always be vigilant, however, this was not the case.
“This tells us that there is more education that needs to be done around this subject which we believe the City and ward councillors can do through awareness campaigns,” Funani said.
Masiphumelele community leader Samkelo Krweqe said the City must accelerate the re-blocking of informal settlements.
“The City must take the opportunity to re-block these congested areas immediately after these shack fires occur. However, because people are desperate to rebuild their homes, it usually misses this opportunity.”