Shack Fire In Khayelitsha. Image by: intern Africa
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Another Shack Fire Rips Through Khayelitsha - VE Section Burns
18 December 2010
Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape
Tonight VE section in Khayelitsha has burnt. At least seven homes have been destroyed.
We have made it clear that as a movement we refuse to accept that it is normal for the homes of the poor to burn like this. We are determined to demand that the plague of shack fires is treated as the crisis that it is and that real steps are taken to free us from this plague.
The immediate first step that needs to be taken is that all shack settlements need to be electrified. We want to assert very clearly that when the state fails to electrify shack settlements we will support all communities to electrify their own settlements in a disciplined, collective and safe manner.
After the recent fire in QQ section we saw on E-TV that the Cape Town Municipality had decided to send out a theatre group to teach shack dwellers how to avoid fires. We are poor not stupid. We know very well what causes fires. We do not need theatre designed for children to teach us how to avoid fires. What we need is electricity and decent housing.
We would like to thank all those people and organisations that provided support to the people of QQ after the recent fire there. Sometimes it takes a crisis for you to realise you are not alone and that there are many people for whom human solidarity does mean something.
Shack fires are not acts of God. They are not merely accidents. Shack fires are a direct result of the social abandonment of the poor and we will never accept them as a normal part of life. They are a result of political choices by the government and we will respond to shack fires politically - with direct action and mass mobilisation.
For further information and comment please contact:
Siziba - Chairperson of Abahlali baseMjondolo BE Section Khayelitsha 078 058 2106
Mzonke - Chairperson of Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape 073 256 2036
Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape
Tonight VE section in Khayelitsha has burnt. At least seven homes have been destroyed.
We have made it clear that as a movement we refuse to accept that it is normal for the homes of the poor to burn like this. We are determined to demand that the plague of shack fires is treated as the crisis that it is and that real steps are taken to free us from this plague.
The immediate first step that needs to be taken is that all shack settlements need to be electrified. We want to assert very clearly that when the state fails to electrify shack settlements we will support all communities to electrify their own settlements in a disciplined, collective and safe manner.
After the recent fire in QQ section we saw on E-TV that the Cape Town Municipality had decided to send out a theatre group to teach shack dwellers how to avoid fires. We are poor not stupid. We know very well what causes fires. We do not need theatre designed for children to teach us how to avoid fires. What we need is electricity and decent housing.
We would like to thank all those people and organisations that provided support to the people of QQ after the recent fire there. Sometimes it takes a crisis for you to realise you are not alone and that there are many people for whom human solidarity does mean something.
Shack fires are not acts of God. They are not merely accidents. Shack fires are a direct result of the social abandonment of the poor and we will never accept them as a normal part of life. They are a result of political choices by the government and we will respond to shack fires politically - with direct action and mass mobilisation.
For further information and comment please contact:
Siziba - Chairperson of Abahlali baseMjondolo BE Section Khayelitsha 078 058 2106
Mzonke - Chairperson of Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape 073 256 2036
Friday, December 10, 2010
Poor abandoned by gov
Housing NGO, Abahlali baseMjondolo has blamed the Western Cape government for a fire which swept through the QQ informal settlement in Khayelitsha on Tuesday night. The fire destroyed 100 shacks and has left as many as 500 people homeless. NGO spokesperson, Ntombeni Qona said most people lost everything in the fire - including a crèche that was built by the community. According to Qona, it is alleged that the fire was started by an illegal electricity connection.
“The major cause of shack fires is that the settlements are not electrified. When the state fails to electrify shack settlements, then they (shack dwellers) have the right to electrify their own shacks,” he said.
Shack fires are not natural disasters - they are a result of the social abandonment of the poor, Qona asserted.
“We will continue to fight for our full social inclusion in this society. That means that while we fight for land and housing, we are also demanding the immediate electrification of all shack settlements as a matter of extreme urgency.”
Qona warned that if government does not provide electricity to all informal settlements, they will encourage communities to organize their own connections in a ‘collective, disciplined and safe manner’.
“Neither the struggle for justice nor the self organized responses to surviving injustice can move forward without proper organization. We are encouraging all communities to democratize their settlements and to elect accountable leadership outside of party structures. This is to ensure that the struggle for the fill right to the city for all can be taken forward,” he said. VOC (Dorianne Arendse)
“The major cause of shack fires is that the settlements are not electrified. When the state fails to electrify shack settlements, then they (shack dwellers) have the right to electrify their own shacks,” he said.
Shack fires are not natural disasters - they are a result of the social abandonment of the poor, Qona asserted.
“We will continue to fight for our full social inclusion in this society. That means that while we fight for land and housing, we are also demanding the immediate electrification of all shack settlements as a matter of extreme urgency.”
Qona warned that if government does not provide electricity to all informal settlements, they will encourage communities to organize their own connections in a ‘collective, disciplined and safe manner’.
“Neither the struggle for justice nor the self organized responses to surviving injustice can move forward without proper organization. We are encouraging all communities to democratize their settlements and to elect accountable leadership outside of party structures. This is to ensure that the struggle for the fill right to the city for all can be taken forward,” he said. VOC (Dorianne Arendse)
Thursday, December 9, 2010
100 shacks razed in fire
Dec 9, 2010 | Elvis ka Nyelenzi | 0 comments
A RAGING shack fire burned about 100 shacks and a community crèche to the ground in Khayelitsha on Tuesday night.
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This is the worst shack fire so far in Cape Town this summer and informal settlement residents fear that hundreds will have lost their homes by the end of the season.
Khayelitsha's QQ Section crèche, built by the community more than two years ago, was destroyed. The only toilet in the settlement, a dry toilet bought by the community for the crèche for R3000 - was also destroyed.
Speaking to Sowetan after the fire, resident Mthobeli Qona said he called the nearest fire brigade, in Site C, Khayelitsha, as soon as the fire started, but they said they did not have water in their tanks.
"They said we must wait for another fire brigade from further away to come. It came after an hour, when all the shacks were burnt down. Everything is gone now."
There are only five taps in the settlement of 5000 people and residents tried to stop the fire using buckets of water.
Qona hit out at the City of Cape Town, saying they had offered each family only eight wooden poles and five sheets of zinc to rebuild their shacks. "This is nothing," Qona said.
Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape president Mzonke Poni, who built the community crèche in 2008, described the fire as "a direct result of the contempt in which the government holds the poor".
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
More than 200 left destitute by CT shack fire
Malungelo Booi | 2 Hours Ago
Residents from QQ Section in Khayelitsha, one of the biggest townships in Cape Town will spend the afternoon re-building their shacks following a devastating fire on Tuesday night.
More than 200 people have been left homeless by the blaze.
Disaster management officials have began distributing building material to several residents who have been left homeless due to the blaze. Each family will receive five corrugated iron sheets to re-erect their structures.
Most residents who spoke to Eyewitness News said they lost everything including their identity documents. It is understood an illegal electricity connection started the fire. Locals said a dog locked inside one of the shacks was burnt to death.
(Edited by Lindiwe Mlandu)
Residents from QQ Section in Khayelitsha, one of the biggest townships in Cape Town will spend the afternoon re-building their shacks following a devastating fire on Tuesday night.
More than 200 people have been left homeless by the blaze.
Disaster management officials have began distributing building material to several residents who have been left homeless due to the blaze. Each family will receive five corrugated iron sheets to re-erect their structures.
Most residents who spoke to Eyewitness News said they lost everything including their identity documents. It is understood an illegal electricity connection started the fire. Locals said a dog locked inside one of the shacks was burnt to death.
(Edited by Lindiwe Mlandu)
Up To Five Hundred People Left Homeless in the QQ Fire Last Night
Wednesday, 08 December 2010
Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape Press Statement
Up To Five Hundred People Left Homeless in the QQ Fire Last Night
The fire that raged through the QQ Section shack settlement in Khayelitsha last
night has destroyed up to 100 shacks leaving as many as 500 people homeless.
Most people have lost everything including ID books, work clothes, school
uniforms, medication and family photographs.
The community built and run crèche has also been destroyed.
We are appealing for immediate help for the people who have been left destitute
in this fire. As a movement we are struggling for justice and not charity but
in a time of crisis we embrace the generosity of others.
It is rumoured that this fire was started by a self-organised electricity
connection. Our movement has been organising around the questions of
electricity and fire in Durban for many years. Our position is that:
1. The major cause of shack fires is the fact that shack settlements are not
electrified and therefore, as a matter of urgency, all shack settlements must
be electrified.
2. When the state fails to electrify shack settlements or simply refuses to
electrify them at all then people have a right to electrify their own shacks.
However it is essential to draw a clear distinction between badly made and
dangerous connections installed in an ad hoc manner and well organised, well
made and safe connections. A well organised community structure can electrify a
settlement safely.
We do not accept that shack fires are natural disasters. Shack fires are the
result of the social abandonment of the poor. We will continue to politicise
shack fires and we will continue to fight for our full social inclusion in this
society. That means that while we fight for land and housing we are also
demanding the immediate electrification of all shack settlements as a matter of
extreme urgency. Where the state fails to respond the shack fire crisis
adequately – and an adequate response must include immediate electrification
– we will encourage all communities to organise their own connections in a
collective, disciplined and safe manner. Neither the struggle for justice nor
the self organised responses to surviving injustice can move forward without
proper organisation. We are encouraging all communities to democratise their
settlements and to elect accountable and recallable leadership outside of party
structures so that the collective, bottom up and responsible self management of
settlements and the struggle for the full right to the city for all can be
taken forward.
For updates and comment from QQ section please contact:
Mr. Qona 076 041 0057
Mbongeni 076 981 6945
Mzonke 073 256 2036
Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape Press Statement
Up To Five Hundred People Left Homeless in the QQ Fire Last Night
The fire that raged through the QQ Section shack settlement in Khayelitsha last
night has destroyed up to 100 shacks leaving as many as 500 people homeless.
Most people have lost everything including ID books, work clothes, school
uniforms, medication and family photographs.
The community built and run crèche has also been destroyed.
We are appealing for immediate help for the people who have been left destitute
in this fire. As a movement we are struggling for justice and not charity but
in a time of crisis we embrace the generosity of others.
It is rumoured that this fire was started by a self-organised electricity
connection. Our movement has been organising around the questions of
electricity and fire in Durban for many years. Our position is that:
1. The major cause of shack fires is the fact that shack settlements are not
electrified and therefore, as a matter of urgency, all shack settlements must
be electrified.
2. When the state fails to electrify shack settlements or simply refuses to
electrify them at all then people have a right to electrify their own shacks.
However it is essential to draw a clear distinction between badly made and
dangerous connections installed in an ad hoc manner and well organised, well
made and safe connections. A well organised community structure can electrify a
settlement safely.
We do not accept that shack fires are natural disasters. Shack fires are the
result of the social abandonment of the poor. We will continue to politicise
shack fires and we will continue to fight for our full social inclusion in this
society. That means that while we fight for land and housing we are also
demanding the immediate electrification of all shack settlements as a matter of
extreme urgency. Where the state fails to respond the shack fire crisis
adequately – and an adequate response must include immediate electrification
– we will encourage all communities to organise their own connections in a
collective, disciplined and safe manner. Neither the struggle for justice nor
the self organised responses to surviving injustice can move forward without
proper organisation. We are encouraging all communities to democratise their
settlements and to elect accountable and recallable leadership outside of party
structures so that the collective, bottom up and responsible self management of
settlements and the struggle for the full right to the city for all can be
taken forward.
For updates and comment from QQ section please contact:
Mr. Qona 076 041 0057
Mbongeni 076 981 6945
Mzonke 073 256 2036
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