Media Statement by Linus Muller – DA PR Councillor – City of Joburg
“A ‘small’ fire broke out in Zandspruit last week destroying 5 shacks and leaving 5 adult males homeless. The community alerted the City of Joburg, asking for assistance. It seems the City chose to turn its back on the community and never responded. No fire truck was dispatched and no other emergency services responded to calls. The community was left to extinguish the fires themselves.
Apart from the ANC Cllr Maureen Schneeman’s donation of a few loaves of bread and couple of bottles of fizzy beverages, the City offered no humanitarian relief at all. The victims of the fire were given shelter for the night by a local Church. The community has been assisting the victims with trying to rebuild their shacks and Dorcas Aid SA has assisted with groceries and bedding” says the DA Shadow Councillor for Ward 114, PR Cllr Linus Muller.
The DA is concerned about the City’s readiness to respond to disasters. It has been questioned in the past and is now questioned once again. During a visit to the Brixton fire station by Cllrs Suzanne Clark and Gert Niemand they noticed that landlines were sabotaged and that residents had no means of contacting the fire station.
Zandspruit is an informal settlement in Honeydew and has more than 5000 shacks. Only a very small portion of the area has been formalised (RDP homes and services like water and electricity), but the bulk of the area still needs to be formalised. “ In the 2012 / 2013 Financial Year, City of Joburg formalised none of its target of 5. Only 1 out of a target of 9 settlements, Orlando Park, was relocated” says Cllr Tsepo Mhlongo, the DA Shadow Member of the Mayoral Committee for Housing.