Fire Survivors Rebuild With Bricks Despite City Regulations

Tired of waiting for state support, people who lost their homes in the 9 January Doornbach fire have begun building new shacks and laying foundations for brick homes where their shacks once stood.

• More than ten brick homes have risen from the ashes in Doornbach despite City of Cape Town regulations barring permanent construction on municipal land.
• Mayco member Carl Pophaim says residents do not have permission to build brick structures.
• The Department of Human Settlements has verified 642 households eligible for fire recovery kits.

When fire tore through Doornbach, an informal settlement in Dunoon, on Friday, 9 January, Feziwe Nondudule watched her double-storey shack burn down for the second time. She is among about 2,600 residents left homeless by the fire in Site 5.

The 58-year-old mother of nine, grandmother to 13 and great-grandmother to one, first lost her ten-room home in a fire in 2018. She rebuilt it plank by plank and added another room.

Standing on the charred footprint of her former home on Tuesday, Nondudule had begun rebuilding again – this time with concrete blocks.

“I am using my last savings to build this house,” she said. “We are not allowed to build brick houses, yet our shacks are burnt constantly.”

Despite City regulations prohibiting permanent structures on the municipal land, more than ten brick homes have already gone up, several nearing completion.

Mayco member for human settlements Carl Pophaim told GroundUp that “all brick-and-mortar buildings have been declared unsafe. Residents have been asked to not re-erect due to safety issues.”

Asked what the City will be doing to deal with the brick homes already being built, Pophaim said the City is “awaiting further guidance on the way forward.” Residents have been engaged and “afforded an opportunity to consider the matter,” he said. “The residents have requested additional time to consider their options and will share their response with City in due course.”

Yet rebuilding is underway across the settlement. Phumzile Nkohlanyana has already completed a one-room brick house. “We build to protect ourselves from shack fires. If you build with bricks, at least there is some safety,” he said.

But most residents remain without shelter.

Community leader Zukiswa Kobe said about 50 households were rebuilding with charred zinc sheets salvaged from the rubble. Many people were sheltering in a makeshift hall while they waited for starter kits from the national human settlements department.

Tsekiso Machike, spokesperson for the Minister of Human Settlements, said the department was still busy with procurement processes and would deliver support “in due course”.

Machike said the conflicting information initially received had required a second round of verification, which was only completed on Saturday. He said the department, working with the City, had verified 642 households as eligible for assistance.

He said beneficiaries would receive full fire recovery kits, including hinges, roofing sheets, timber poles, nails and other materials.

However, shacks that once bordered the MyCiTi bus depot will not be rebuilt because the boundary wall has been declared structurally unsafe. The 28 affected families would be relocated. The department would cover R450 per person per night for emergency accommodation for 30 days.

Meanwhile, another two fires tore through homes in separate areas of Dunoon on Friday.

City fire and rescue spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said a fire at 6am razed an RDP house and three shacks in Usasaza Street and damaged adjacent properties. Ten people were left homeless. “No injuries were reported, and the cause is unknown,” said Carelse.

A second fire at 2:30pm in Siyabonga Street destroyed four shacks and left seven people homeless.

“Two adults suffered from smoke inhalation and were treated and transported to a nearby medical facility. No other injuries were reported, and the cause is unknown,” he said.

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