Massive Fire Devastates the Foreman Road Settlement

Foreman Road Abahlali baseMjondolo Branch
Press Statement, 10:00 a.m., 13 September 2008

Massive Fire Devastates the Foreman Road Settlement

morning sun. man. smoke. ruins.

A fire started at the bottom of the Foreman Road settlement at around 3: 00 a.m. this morning. There is only one tap in the settlement and it was impossible to fight the fire. Most of the settlement, at least a thousand shacks, burnt very quickly. Our neighbours called the fire brigade and they came and put the fire out. In 2004 the Municipality said that they would install fire hydrants. They started the work but never finished it. We have been left to burn.

So far we have found one body in the ashes and debris but there may be more. It is still smouldering and we can’t clear it all till it cools down.

We called an assembly of all the residents this morning and we have decided that:

1. Foreman Road must be declared a disaster area. It is not right that shack fires are treated as a normal thing while other fires are taken seriously, taken as disasters. Our lives count the same as other peoples' lives.

2. We will not accept to be put in a transit camp. We do not want government shacks (the tin shacks). We have seen what happened in Jadhu Place. We will rebuild Foreman Road ourselves. We have already started the work. The Municipality must support the community with building materials like they supported the Kennedy Road community after the recent fire there.

3. It is good to provide tents while people are rebuilding but they must be a temporary emergency measure. People cannot live in tents for months.

4. Home Affairs must come to the settlement to register all the people that lost ID books. Many of them have no money and only the clothes that they were wearing and can’t go into town now. Also, they have to rebuild as quickly as is possible.

5. We need support to get school uniforms for the children. Schools must accept children without uniforms until this can be resolved.

6. We need emergency food.

7. The Municipality must install more taps, fire hydrants, a proper access road for the fire trucks and electricity with maximum urgency.

Abahlali baseMjondolo had planned to hold the City Wide Shack Fire Summit in Foreman Road on Monday 22 September 2008. Now, it seems, we will have to hold the summit in the ashes of Foreman Road.

Shack fires are a crisis. They are not something normal. The government must stop blaming the victims every time there is a fire. We have to treat the fires as a crisis. We have to act against the real causes of the fires. The main cause is that people don’t have electricity. Other causes are that people don’t have enough taps or any fire hydrants to fight the fires. The short term solution is to electrify the shacks and provides taps, fire hydrants and access roads. The real solution is to upgrade the settlements with proper brick houses.

We are busy taking the full details of all the people that have lost their shacks and will soon have the exact numbers of homes lost and people left homeless.

We note that this time last year residents of Foreman Road were amongst those beaten and arrested by the police for marching against the fires and demanding the right to safety.

We encourage everyone to read and discuss the AbM Report on Shack Fires before the summit.

We thank our neighbours, the fire department and everyone who has come to offer what support they can.

For comment and more information please contact:

George Bonono, Foreman Road Abahlali baseMjondolo Branch Chairperson: 0782245441
Mnikelo Ndabankulu, Abahlali baseMjondolo Spokesperson: 0797450653

Click here for pictures of the immediate aftermath of the fire on Saturday morning and here for pictures of the attempt, successfully thwarted, to demolish the rebuilt shacks on Monday.

Also see:

1. Solidarity statement from AbM Western Cape.
2. Solidarity Statement from the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

And some newspaper articles:

1.Sunday Tribune article.
2.Mercury article.
3.Daily News article.
4.Isolezwe article.
5.Sowetan article.
6.Opinion piece in the Sunday Tribune.