City comes to the rescue of Kya Sands residents
13-10-2014
The City of Johannesburg is exploring ways of speeding up the development of Kya Sands.
This was said by the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Mpho Parks Tau during his visit to the informal settlement that was ravaged by fire last week, leaving thousands of families displaced.
Mayor Tau attributed the spread of shack fires to the limited spaces between dwellings. “When you build (a shack) without leaving distance (between each shack) … when one shack burns, all the others will burn.”
Accompanied by members of the mayoral committee (MMCs) for Environment and Infrastructure Services Matshidiso Mfikoe and Health and Social Development Nonceba Molwele, including an entourage of city officials, the mayor did a walkabout, assessing the area as the sound of hammers on metal sheets echoed across the ruined site.
Speaking to community members, Mayor Tau thanked organisations that came to the assistance of community members.
“We came to see the damage that was caused by the fire outbreak and to further speak to the community following the disaster. We say thank you to the various organisations that came to offer support, through the food they donated among other things.”
He said the city would meet with community leaders to address the problems faced and ensure that everyone is sheltered. “Secondly, we will also talk about what I and the MMC for housing Dan Bovu have been discussing (pertaining to housing development)… But first, let’s sort out the matter at hand and ensure that people are sheltered. We will further discuss how we can speed up development in the area.”
He said community leaders would report back to the residents on the meeting that transpired.
Music and concert promotions company T-Musicman was among the organisations that pledged support to the destitute, by donating blankets and food.
“When something of this nature happens, it affects all of us, lending a hand is the least we can do. What we’re seeing here is more than what we saw on the television, it’s depressing and we feel that there’s still more than we need to contribute over and above what we’ve brought,” said Sipho Dlamini from T-Musicman’s executive operations team.
Judah Africa Revival Ministries has since been helping and co-ordinating the help that’s coming from Individuals and other organisations, food, clothing and mobile shelters are some of the donations that have been received and citizens are urged to help with any other donations.
Call Pastor Evans Steven Phiri on 0766432663 or Carla Lee on 0782680967
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