Mr Bongani Msomi
UDM Secretary General
The United Democratic Movement (UDM) is disturbed by the horrific Khayelitsha fires that claimed a life and left hundreds of people without a place of safety. We are in particular worried about matric pupils busy preparing for final exams. There can never be anything more stressful than the situation they find themselves in while they still need to study.
The UDM calls on all stakeholders to pay attention and to support the affected communities. Minister of human settlement, Zoliswa Kota-Fredericks, must intervene. Shacks are the main challenge that leads to these fires and government must step up to the plate when it comes to housing.
The fact that taps are not available and/or are far from communities is another problem when fires strike as there is no hope to douse fires and to prevent them from spreading. Most people who are affected by such fires, also fall victim to floods because informal settlements are built below the flood line.
Our people do not have proper infrastructure while millions of rands that are meant for service delivery, continue to disappear and no one is held accountable. How many lives must be lost before something is done to prevent accidents like these?
Week after week service delivery protests rock communities and nothing is done. Now that voting time is around, places that are affected by such disasters will not be far for government officials to visit. The reality is that officials do not care about people they only want their votes. Government is the reason for unrest in the country and people are tired of unfulfilled promises.
Government must come up with permanent solution to stop these shack fires that continue to steal lives of the innocent and destroy communities.
Issued by:
Bongani Msomi
UDM Secretary General
