Pretoria - Just for a little bit longer. These were the words Zimbabwean Agnes Tambala, 41, used to comfort and convince her 4-year-old daughter Reginah to agree to sleep at a neighbour’s house as she and hundreds of families from Plastic View informal settlement faced the bitter cold on Sunday.
Tambala and her family were among those who lost their homes when a fire broke out in the informal settlement on Sunday and gutted 350 shacks and claimed five lives.
The blaze, believed to have been started by an unattended candle, left a further 1 500 families with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Tambala who lives with her husband and two children said trying to convince her little girl to stay at her neighbour house was heartbreaking.
“She kept saying she wanted to stay in our own home but there is nothing we can do. It’s like being an orphan and that is something I didn’t wish for my children.”
Tambala said she used the tent provided to them, but her husband Peter Mapfumo, also from Zimbabwe, slept outside in the cold.
“He slept next to a small fire he made to keep himself warm through the night.
“The tent is too small for both of us. He said he just wanted his family to be warm for the night at least.”
The mother of two said her daughter was overjoyed at seeing trucks moving away the rubble and told her parents this meant they would get to rebuild their home.
Mapfumo said having the burnt items removed was a good sign, but he still had no idea where he was going to get building material from as he had lost everything in the fire.
“I hear people saying that they are going to give us 10 metres of plastic so we can rebuild.
“It’s not safe but there’s nothing else we can do but to accept whatever we are given at this stage.”
Joyce Maluleke from Giyani said her husband also slept outside using plastic and one of the blankets they were given, while she and her 9-year-old daughter Jennet slept in the tent.
“It’s a very sad situation to witness but there really is nothing more we can do. I’m trying to comfort myself that my husband isn’t alone in the cold, as he was with his two elder brothers,” she said.
“Last night was really cold and I just tried to hold on to my child so that we could keep each other warm.
“If we say we want to leave this place where will we go? It’s the only place we’ve been able to call home since we left Giyani five years ago,” she said.
“We used to sell cold drinks, chicken feet, livers and intestines but we lost all of that including the little bit of money we had saved in the house.
“My husband is out now trying to get any piece job so we can at least get together some building materials,” she said.
Mayoral spokesman Blessing Manale said information that the residents would be given plastic sheets to rebuild once everything was cleared up was not true, as they had been advised not to do so by emergency personnel.
“We were advised not to do that owing to the flammability of the material.
“We will be pitching larger PVC tents. We can’t however distribute permanent building material to the residents as it would come off as an endorsement of the informal settlement ahead of the current resettlement negotiations,” Manale said.
“As part of the reconstruction we will peg and demarcate the shack allotments properly as per our last count and ensure that paths are easy to drive on for emergency vehicle access,” said Manale.
The city would install floodlights in the settlement to create better visibility in case of an emergency evacuation, he said.
Ali Sayed, a volunteer with Gift of the Givers, said the first stage of the short-term relief plan was successfully implemented on Sunday.
They had managed to hand out 1 000 tents, blankets and mattresses.
“We’re on the second stage today which involves handing out sanitary pads for women and toiletries for children as well as disposable nappies and non-perishable items.” he said on Monday.
He said they had received generous donations from the surrounding communities.
This had enabled them to give the families hampers with fruit and vegetables, powdered milk, toothpaste, soap and stock.
“People who didn’t get tents are being accommodated by the church but most people do not want to stay too far away from their stands,” said Sayed.
Retha Erasmus, ministry leader for community development at NG Kerk Moreleta, said since word was sent out to their members and the community, they had received a lot of donations; so much so that some of the stuff was being moved to a second drop-off point at the church.
Erasmus said the church was still open for donations. They were still in need of medication (aspirin), corrugated iron, mattresses, toiletries, nappies and formula milk.
“On Wednesday we plan on handing the collected items out to the community.
“But we also ask that people please donate pots, pans and utensils so that when the relief plan is over they can cook for themselves and not be left stranded,” she said.
Drop-off time at the NG Kerk Moreleta is between 7am and 7pm.
Pretoria News