MyZA

News, Directory, Events and Other Stuff

You are here: Home / News / Hundreds Left Homeless After Shack Fire at One of Durban’s Oldest Informal Settlements

Hundreds Left Homeless After Shack Fire at One of Durban’s Oldest Informal Settlements

About 150 shacks at Kenville informal settlement were gutted on Wednesday afternoon

About 150 shacks at Kenville informal settlement in Durban were gutted in a fire on Wednesday afternoon.

Hundreds of people were left homeless after about 150 shacks at Kenville informal settlement in Durban were gutted by fire on Wednesday afternoon. Most people were at work when the fire started and unable to salvage their belongings.

Community leader Nhlanhla Mbili said by the time firefighters arrived most of their shacks had caught alight. It took about five hours to extinguish the fire.

Mbili said community leaders had warned residents to keep pathways through the settlement open so that emergency vehicles can get through easily.

Mbali Ntuli said she was in her shack when she heard neighbours screaming for her to get out. She only managed to grab her phone. All her belongings, including important documents, were destroyed.

“I am only left with what I am wearing. I had already bought the Christmas clothes for my daughter,” said Ntuli.

Kenville is one of the oldest informal settlements in ward 34. Residents say they are tired of living in such conditions and want government to build them proper houses. The settlement lacks formal services so many people have connected water and electricity illegally.

Ward councillor Andrew Akkers said, “Most people in the area know that I have been pushing the municipality to get proper electricity.”

Comment from the municipality will be added when received.

© 2024 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.

We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, not tracking users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.

Read More at GroundUp

Category: Tag: , , , , , , , ,

If you feel strongly about this article then feel free to send MyZA a ‘Letter to the Editor’ using the submission form below:

Letter to the Editor

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
If this is in response to an article please include that article title here or as the lead in for the first paragraph of your Letter below.

Separate tags with commas

Localise your letter by naming the city your words are about. Add relevant words describing your subject. Single comma separated words of no more than 5
Your Name(Required)
Your Name will be linked to the website below.
Your personal, business or social media web site
Choose NO to not set up a user account on MyZA. User Accounts will allow you to submit letters under your own Author Name

3 Latest Letters to the Editor:

  • Older Persons Grants Land Today — No Need to Queue at Dawn

    Dear Editor, Older Persons grants are paid today, 30 October, under SASSA’s revised November payment schedule — with disability grants on Monday 2 November, children’s grants on Tuesday 3 November, and grants under review on Thursday 5 November. Two things every beneficiary should know. First, grant money does not expire on payment day. It stays…

  • November Grants Pay Early – No Need to Queue at Dawn

    Dear Editor, I run SAGrant (sagrant.co.za), a free resource helping South Africans navigate SASSA grants. November grants pay earlier than usual. Older Persons grants are paid on Friday 30 October, Disability grants on 2 November, and Child Support and other grants on 3 November. Grants still under review are paid on 5 November. The money…

  • NSFAS 2027 applications close on 31 October — SASSA households, apply now

    Dear Editor, I run SAGrant (sagrant.co.za), a free resource helping South Africans navigate SASSA grants. NSFAS applications for the 2027 academic year close on Friday 31 October 2026, and no extension is expected. If your household receives a SASSA grant, your child already passes the NSFAS financial eligibility test — but they still have to…

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Fun South African Fact: South Africa is home to the highest commercial bungi jump in the world at 710 feet.

  2. Thanks for this post – I have had a great time visiting your site and find myself now wanting to physically visit South Africa. Well Done!