Pretoria - MEC of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements, Paul Mashatile, has warned residents against the dangers of illegal electricity connections and overloading of power supply.
MEC Mashatile said this on Wednesday after visiting two areas in Alexandra that were burnt down.
In the first area, 17 families were left homeless after their shacks caught fire because of a suspected illegal connection.
At the second area, a pensioner is still recovering in hospital after her home caught fire from using a candle.
The pensioner was using a candle because there was an electricity outage suspected to have been caused by overloading in the power supply.
These fires followed yet another devastating fire in the province just two days before in the Plastic View community, outside Pretoria, in which five people lost their lives when hundreds of shacks were destroyed leaving several families homeless.
MEC Mashatile said government was going to work hard to assist the families.
The MEC told the 17 families that some of them have to be moved to another area in order to create space between their shacks.
“A matter of great concern, is the proximity in which these shacks are built. This in itself is posing major problems and contributes directly to the rapid spreading of fires and hampers accessibility for fire fighters and other relief workers,” said MEC Mashatile.
MEC Mashatile said the rebuilding of shacks was a temporary relief plan.
“Government has land in the nearby areas. As a long term solution most of you will have to move so that we decongest Alexandra,” he said.
“We count on the co-operation of the Alex community to give government relief workers the space and time to build interim homes for the victims of this fire,” he said.
In the second area, MEC Mashatile urged government officials and volunteers to start working on the roof of the house because it was not stable after the fire.
“We do not want the family to move in and then the roof falls on them,” he said.
MEC Mashatile thanked the Department of Social Development for giving the family mattresses, blankets, food parcels and vanity bags.
He also thanked the City of Johannesburg for the hygiene packs and vegetable packs.
The City of Johannesburg is also expected to provide trauma counselling for the family members. – SAnews.gov.za
