More than R5 million has been allocated to those verified residents affected by recent fires in informal settlements. The focus will be on residents who have not rebuilt, especially in Phola Park in Philippi

The allocation has been included in the City’s January 2023 Adjustments Budget, which was tabled in Council today, 26 January 2023. The funds have been availed to the City by the National Government from the Municipal Emergency Grant. The City awaits the funding in order to start the procurement of fire kits and material.

Over December and January more than 1 000 residents were affected by fires in some informal settlements. The allocation will be used to help verified beneficiaries that have not rebuilt yet in areas determined by the Minister of Human Settlements, including Phola Park, Khayelitsha, Dunoon and Masiphumelele.

The allocation translates to approximately 400 emergency building units, however the allocation also includes other emergency relief work, not just fire kits. On average, from the number of fires the City experiences per year, a budget of approximately R42 million is required to assist residents with building kits. However, this allocation for the recent fires goes some way to at least enable the City to again provide some relief outside of declared disasters.

Until 2021, the City was unique among the metros in that it issued emergency fire and flood building kits to residents when required, without first applying for official disaster funding. This meant immediate help for fire and flood victims. Accessing national disaster funding is a lengthy process, often leaving victims without assistance for many months on end.

When the City’s grant funding conditions were changed, the approximately R35 million it had been budgeting per year at that time to assist, fell away. The City continued its call for National Government to again look at grant funding to assist provincial governments and municipalities with this mounting task of rapid emergency assistance. We are thus pleased that we are able to make provision for this allocation in the January 2023 Adjustments Budget.

City teams are utterly dedicated to providing relief to fire and flood affected residents within what is possible. Every instance of fire is assessed and a specific approach is developed as all instances will have unique circumstances. The City enables and facilitates soft relief, such as donations as well as much work on site clearing and the reinstatement of services, verification and assessments for assistance.

In older, long-existing City-supplied informal settlements, where it has been possible to do, almost 100% of the settlements are electrified. Due to the growth of informality over the past decade, budget requirements have increased severely as incidents requiring fire and flood response have shot up. Most of the newly formed settlements over the past three years have been formed in areas absolutely prone to fires and floods due to the terrain and also the density of settlements. Unlawful occupations have also occurred in areas where there are no bulk services, or where none have ever been planned as the areas occupied are wetlands, nature reserves, dunes and other water bodies. A cause of the fires in some areas can thus be attributed to unsafe electrical connections from illegal connections.

We look forward to working together with all stakeholders to enhance our emergency response in a feasible and well-defined manner. We call on National Government to avail funds to help with the growing need of emergency response outside of a declared disaster.

Source: City Of Cape Town