Everything is gone, say Cape Town’s Masiphumelele residents after 256 houses burn down

Residents of Masiphumelele’s informal Section-E started rebuilding their homes after the July 28 fire, despite not yet having received assistance from the City. (Photo: Tessa Knight)

By Sandisiwe Shoba and Tessa Knight

31 Jul 2019

Two days after a devastating fire ripped through an informal settlement in Masiphumelele, those affected try to pick up the pieces and rebuild their lives.

“Kubuhlungu” (it’s painful), says Sanelisiwe Tshetsha, a Grade 11 pupil at Masiphumelele High School who lost her home in the blaze that destroyed 256 shacks in Section E of Masiphumelele township near Fish Hoek, Cape Town.

“Everything is burnt, my school shoes, books, uniform.”

She is one of about 1,200 people who lost their homes in the Wetland informal settlement at around midnight on Sunday, 28 July 2019. Residents say the fire started after a candle was knocked over in one of the homes.

Buhle Ranega, 25, has to protect the land and materials needed to rebuild the home he shares with his brother and mother in Section E of Masiphumelele, which burnt down on 28 July 2019. (Photo: Tessa Knight)

Tshetsha lived in a two-bedroom shack with her elderly mother, two sisters and her two nieces. She says she can’t go back to school because she has to help rebuild their home.

“My mom is old, so we all have to help,” she said. “I can probably only go back to school next week.”

Tshetsha and her family slept in the Methodist church on Myeza Road a few hundred metres from the outskirts of Section E. Like the rest of the displaced residents, Tshetsha did not have a mattress to sleep on. The 18-year-old slept on the floor.

Masiphumelele resident Nakai Mulambo immediately started rebuilding the home he rented in the informal settlement known as Section E after a fire started on 28 July. (Photo: Tessa Knight)

The church, as well as a nearby community hall, were turned into temporary shelters for those affected, while also serving as donation drop-off spots.

Reverend Mahlomola Mokuena, who leads the church, said that whenever disasters like this happen, residents always look for a church in which they can find shelter.

“We open our doors and they can stay here while they try to rebuild their homes. We also try to give them food,” he said.

Residents of Masiphumelele’s informal Section-E started rebuilding their homes after the July 28 fire, despite not yet having received assistance from the City. (Photo: Tessa Knight)

Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Pam Tshwete arrived at the church on the morning of Tuesday 30 July and immediately had to navigate mud and dirt while wearing red high heels. After changing into more practical boots, the deputy minister walked with an entourage of City officials, community leaders and departmental employees to survey the damage to Section E.

“This building is for emergencies because they can’t be here forever. So we have to come up with something that can help them immediately. The only option is to give them material to build,” Tshwete told Daily Maverick after visiting the destroyed area.

But for the residents of Masiphumelele, shack fires are nothing new. In 2015 a fire ripped through Section D and Section E of the township, destroying about 1,000 shacks and displacing more than 4,000 people. In the aftermath, City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, promised residents a fire station would be built by the end of 2017. Now, two years later, residents hope to see a station built by the end of 2019, according to a May 2019 statement by the City.

Although residents have already started rebuilding, the City has yet to supply building materials. Instead, residents are using materials not destroyed by the fire.

“People are rebuilding, they can’t wait for the City to bring material,” said community leader Zoleka Dotwana.

Twenty-five-year-old Buhle Ranega finds the wait for materials from the City tense. He had to sit on top of corrugated metal sheets that he rescued while his house, that he shares with his older brother and mother, burnt down. According to Ranega, if he had left the materials and the plot of land, someone would have stolen both.

A group of middle-aged women huddled around a nearby fire told Daily Maverick that they were also protecting their plot for fear that they would have nowhere to build once the materials arrived from the City.

A resident and community leader who would only give his name as Phumzile, said there was “still going to be fighting” among those affected, over land and building materials.

“People’s plots and land get taken by others,” he said.

Some residents forewent the KFC meals provided by Gift of the Givers in favour of protecting their land.

When Daily Maverick arrived on Tuesday, the SA Social Security Agency (SASSA) had not yet provided the community with food or resources. Before Gift of the Givers arrived with KFC, community members bought six loaves of bread to support those affected.

Tshwete was shocked that SASSA had not delivered supplies.

“Six loaves of bread for 256 people!” she said, astounded at the lack of food at the church.

Some residents of Section E told Daily Maverick they had not eaten since Monday evening.

“For now, people must get food and blankets and you must bring mattresses here,” Tshwete told City officials and representatives from Gift of the Givers during an impromptu meeting on Tuesday morning at the Methodist Church.

Ali Sablay, Gift of the Givers Western Cape project manager, said the NGO would provide 1,000 blankets and mattresses for those displaced by the fire, promised stationery packs for pupils and other materials such as pots, pans and utensils which would be delivered only once residents had rebuilt their homes — to prevent theft.

According to Malusi Booi, Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, the City aims to hand out 256 building kits.

“The building kit consists of, among others, a door, hinges and lockset, a window, nails and poles, and corrugated steel sheets. We are the only metro which distributes such rebuilding kits in an effort to help our residents,” Booi said.

But Dotwana told Daily Maverick that the kits had not been distributed, primarily due to poor weather. In order to rebuild their homes, residents of Section E had to battle torrential rain, mud and jagged pieces of burnt metal.

Resident Nakai Mulambo told Daily Maverick that “it’s hard enough in winter; now we are homeless”.

Some residents had also lost vital documents such as IDs and birth certificates. Booi said during the meeting with Tshwete that Disaster Management had told relevant departments such as Home Affairs and SASSA to help residents to replace lost documentation.

However, Rev Mokuena said that a number of residents from Section S, where a fire broke out in May 2019, were still waiting to receive replacement IDs and SASSA cards. Tshwete told Daily Maverick the issue of ID cards is of particular importance because matric students require identification documents in order to write their final exams. DM

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