JOHANNESBURG SOUTH – The President of the National Freedom Party, Zanele Magwaza-Msibi, has urged the Gauteng government to speed up the process of eradicating shacks in order to preavent shack fires in informal settlements.
This comes after raging fires wreaked havoc, claiming the lives of four children at Sinqobile township in Germiston, east of Johannesburg. The boys, aged three to 13, were sleeping in the four-roomed shack when it caught fire.
“As the Party, we are devastated at the loss of such young lives. We believe these children would still be alive had they been living in a decent house. While we understand that lack of proper houses remains one of the biggest challenges facing our country, we also believe that we would not be having so many shacks if there was a strict and proper allocation process of low-cost houses.
“Government build houses for the people, but somewhere in the allocation, challenges persist, resulting in deserving people not getting them. It’s worrying that there are instances where senior government officials own several low-cost houses, due to massive corruption.
“As the NFP, we send our deepest condolences to the families of the victims. I cannot imagine what they are going through at the moment,” said Magwaza-Msibi.
