City continues to provide relief to Valhalla Park fire victims

The City of Cape Town continues to provide disaster relief aid to more than 1 500 people left destitute by a fire in the ‘Agstelaan' informal settlement in Valhalla Park on Monday 23 December 2013, as part of our commitment to building a caring city for our residents.

Efforts to fast-track the upgrading of the informal settlement in the wake of the fire have been hampered by protest action that erupted yesterday. The City of Cape Town is committed to finding a solution to the issues raised and will once more engage with the community tomorrow.

The City's Human Settlements department has already cleared the disaster site and has started marking out individual plots with the intention of facilitating the rebuilding of homes, using enhanced building kits; the implementation of fire breaks, installation of water points, safe electricity connections and other basic municipal services.

The department is ready to hand over the first 100 building kits to residents to start the rebuilding process. This can commence as soon as the public meeting that is scheduled for tomorrow morning has concluded. Should there be no further delays, all plots will have been demarcated and building kits handed out by Sunday 29 December.

There are already functional toilets on site and more will be delivered to the area on 30 December.

I've noted the demands of those who participated in the protest action on Boxing Day and it's important to reiterate that the City is doing all it can, with the resources at its disposal, to provide decent housing opportunities for all its residents. The City works with a housing database to ensure fair and equitable delivery to residents. This database must be taken into consideration with regards to providing housing opportunities to any particular group.

In the interim, the City's Disaster Risk Management Centre continues its relief operations in the area. The City is also working with the Department of Home Affairs to facilitate the reissuing of Identity Documents lost in the fire. The South African Social Security Agency will also be visiting the site in the coming days to do biometric verification of all grant beneficiaries.

Statement issued by Patricia de Lille, Executive Mayor of Cape Town, December 27 2013

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