Fransman visits fatal fire sites

The ANC has conveyed its condolences to the deceased victims (last count were three), the injured and about three thousand people who were left roofless on New Year's Day after a fire in Khayelitsha destroyed 1 000 informal structures.

The ANC also thanked all role players, like the Department of Home Affairs, Department of Social Development with its grant agency SASSA, mostly national government initiatives and NPO's, who rushed to assist with emergency work, giving food, temporary shelter and clothes to the poor people who lost everything in the devastating fires that razed the area.

International Affairs and Co-operation Deputy Minister Marius Fransman (ANC Western Cape leader) visited the area this afternoon to assess the situation and assist people.

Fransman says: "The absent DA is nowhere to be found. It is clear the DA does not care for poor people. It is only interested in its mostly white constituency and rich people.

"Premier Helen Zille's envoy MEC Anton Bredell is fast to run to the Overberg fires where mostly farmers faced fires, but he is not seen in the frequent fires ravaging people's lives in townships during this time.

"Fire fighting services is not equitably distributed across all communities. It mostly care for businesses and formal areas and too little is present in townships where the majority of people die annually due to disaster and killer fires.

"These areas and residents are plagued by various service delivery problems like open and inadequate outside toilets, poverty diseases, rats, crime, land shortages and other ills. Too many babies die every year of predictable diarrhoea and other runny tummy infections due to inadequate infrastructure. This discrimination and racial division between citizens must stop."

Statement issued by ANC Western Cape leader Marius Fransman, January 1 2012

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