The Emergency Housing Team from the National Department of Human Settlements (NHDS) has arrived in the City of Cape Town to work with local teams to assist households affected by a fire that destroyed about 50 structures yesterday morning at Silvertown, Khayelitsha, leaving scores of people without shelter.

As the country expects freezing and wet weather conditions over the next few days, Minister of Human Settlements, Thembi Simelane, has appealed to residents in informal settlements to be extra careful when using cooking and heating devices such as izimbawula.

“Work with us to prevent deadly and destructive fires in informal settlements. The resources we invest during emergencies could be used to accelerate upgrading of our informal settlements, thus providing decent and permanent shelter to the qualifying beneficiaries”, said Minister Simelane.

“Every minute matters. Please use Emergency Services contact numbers responsibly. Their abuse put people’s lives at risk. Work with us to save lives and infrastructure”, appealed Simelane.

Minister Simelane has also directed a team responsible for emergency housing within the NDHS to expedite the process to assist recent victims including Khayelitsha.

There is a strong likelihood that affected qualifying households will be assisted with building materials to enable them to restore their structures. This is one of the four categories of emergency housing interventions provided by the National Department of Human Settlements (NDHS).

Meanwhile, building material is expected to be delivered between this coming Tuesday and Wednesday to 57 families affected by a fire at Kennedy Road informal settlement, Ethekwini.

Enquiries: Tsekiso Machike, Spokesperson to the Minister on 077 410 5050 Tsekiso.machike@dhs.gov.za  

Issued by the Ministry of Human Settlements, Govan Mbeki House 240, Justice Mahomed Street, Sunnyside, Pretoria