City fast tracks establishment of TRA for BM residents

The City of Cape Town is working very hard to ensure that those residents affected by the recent fire in BM section in Khayelitsha are afforded alternative accommodation as a matter of extreme urgency.

To this end the City and Province have held a number of meetings with community representatives in order to provide short term relief and longer term improvements for the area.

The immediate priority is the establishment of a Temporary Relocation Area (TRA) at OR Tambo Hall. This site will provide temporary accommodation to over 300 families and will help ensure that those people currently living in the hall itself can move to structures.

I have met with the Western Cape MEC for Local Government Anton Bredell to help fast track the necessary planning processes for this development.

As a direct result of this, earthworks on the site started today. We are confident that the TRA will be ready within two weeks to give life to our commitment to build a Caring City by mitigating any inconvenience suffered by the residents due to the fire.

At the same time the City is working with the Provincial Government to ensure that the Bosasa site can be expanded to accommodate residents affected by the fire.

The site currently accommodates 384 families who have one-on-one services and access roads, as well a range of community facilities.

The relevant statutory processes have already been enacted and should be completed within the next month - an aggressive acceleration of the normal processes that shows our commitment to resolving the situation as quickly as humanly possible.

Simultaneously, the City is working hard to ensure that the land in BM section affected by the fire is incorporated into a general upgrade of BM section, which will ultimately lead to improved levels of service provision in the area.

I would again like to thank the people of Cape Town who have contributed food and other goods to the affected families, financial contributions stood at R118 000 at the last count.

The City will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that this situation is well managed and dealt with in the shortest possible time period to help the affected residents to rebuild their lives.

Statement issued by Patricia de Lille, Executive Mayor of Cape Town, January 16 2013

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