Mothers take out credit to rebuild lives after fire guts 36 shacks in Bekhela informal settlement
Peter Luhanga
One man sustained burn wounds in a shack fire that destroyed 36 shacks, leaving 150 people destitute and homeless in the Bekhela informal settlement in Dunoon on Thursday 10 April.
Charity organisation Gift of the Givers has been serving meals once a day since Thursday, and distributed blankets to fire victims.
Since Thursday, many fire victims have cleared their plots and straightened burnt zinc sheets to use in their rebuilding efforts.
Some have gone to local hardware stores, negotiating on credit to obtain zinc sheets, nails, and planks. Instead of rebuilding full-sized shacks which were destroyed by the fire, they are constructing single-room shack for temporary accommodation while they figure out how to raise the funds needed to restore their homes.
The informal settlement, located across the N7 from Richwood, is densely populated, making the rebuilding process challenging.
Khayakazi Maphila, 41, is a mother of two young children, aged two and 19. Her three-room shack, which once included two bedrooms and a combined lounge and kitchen, was completely destroyed by the blaze.
At the time of the fire, Maphila was at work in Claremont, while her husband had gone out in search of casual employment while the children were at school. They all returned to find their home reduced to ashes.
“My husband’s ID was burnt, along with clinic cards and the children’s birth certificates. We lost everything,” said Maphila.
She said she has been forced to negotiate credit with hardware stores in order to obtain building materials amounting to R4,500. She also secured a double bed from a local furniture shop on credit for R3,500. The builder she hired to construct a one-room shack, her only option to accommodate her family, charged R1,500 and has agreed to be paid later, once she has the money.
Community leader Zanele Nkohla said 150 people have left homeless after the fire destroyed 36 shacks.
City of Cape Town fire and rescue services were alerted at 11:50 on Thursday to a blaze tearing through the shacks, according to spokesperson Jermaine Carelse.
Carelse said the man who was injured as treated by medics at the scene. He said no deaths were reported and the cause of the fire is not known.
But he said “law enforcement agencies” were called in as some “members of the community were damaging fire hoses, making it extremely difficult for fire-fighters to do their work”.