Pretoria - They may not have much either, but residents of Munsieville informal settlement are reaching out to their Plastic View counterparts, which was gutted by fire at the weekend.
The City of Tshwane, NGOs, congregations of Moreleta Park and ordinary citizens have done their bit over the past few days to help the families of Plastic View informal settlement, east of Pretoria.
Nicki van Niekerk, a resident of the predominately white Munsieville informal settlement in Krugersdorp, said they had been touched by the reports of 534 families left with next to nothing after the fire.
Van Niekerk said that being poor and having gone through something similar they knew how it felt to lose everything.
She said that after reading the reports, they decided to rather donate supplies that had been donated to them, as Plastic View residents needed then even more during this time.
“We know very well how it feels to lose everything and we know that we are poor, but even the little we have will mean a lot to them during this time. For us when people fall you help them up. We sat together and decided that since we had things donated to us we would take all of those and give it to them.”
Van Niekerk said the residents would deliver bedding, clothing, blankets and pillows to the informal settlement by late yesterday.
Retha Erasmus, executive director for the Moreletapark congregations' NPO Lift Community Development, said yesterday was the last day of their relief programme to the community.
Erasmus said they would again prepare something for the families to eat in the afternoon, as they had since the incident occurred.
She said the destitute families had been given mattresses, kitchenware, blankets and paraffin stoves.
The families were also assisted with a few building materials and plastics to cover their newly rebuilt shacks.
“We have had our hands full over the past few days; a lot of people came on board and residents kept coming in to deliver donations and help where they could too.
“We had a truck full of clothes delivered from another church, and we will be able to give them a few more items today (yesterday) even if it’s the last day of the relief.”
The latest fire at Plastic View informal settlement is the fourth in six years – the last was on July 18 last year.
Pretoria News