Durban — A family from Mariannridge, Pinetown, has been living in their partially burnt-out council flat since November.
Puseletso Dlamini said the fire department, on doing an inspection, claimed that the fire had been caused by the wiring in one of the wall plugs in one of the bedrooms.
Speaking to the Daily News, Dlamini said she had no other place to live and had had to tolerate the situation.
Dlamini lives in the flat with her father and her three children.
She said her elderly and frail father, who did not want to be named, had been asleep when the fire broke and had to be carried out because of smoke inhalation.
The flat has no roof or windows. The family faces the daunting task of having to put up buckets for the leaks around their flat, and also has to scoop up water with buckets after it rains.
“Whenever it rains we face a nightmare of having to stay up the whole night, scooping up rainwater with buckets, and also using other buckets for the leaks all over the house. We are all getting sick now. We also do not have an electricity supply,” Dlamini said.
The family said they had reported the matter to eThekwini ward 3 councillor Reginald Cloete, who further referred the matter to the Human Settlements Department.
Dlamini said that on Thursday morning officials from the department came to take measurements, and wrote down everything that needed to be done to repair their house.
Cloete said that unfortunately, municipal problems took time to be processed and that they were doing everything possible to fast-track the repairs. Cloete added that the problem had been reported to the Human Settlements Department, who went to assess the damage and were working on fixing the house.
“We understand that there is a pensioner who lives in the house, and the lady and her three children are still residing in the house because they have no alternative place to stay,” Cloete said.
Dlamini complained on social media and attracted the attention of Patriotic Alliance ward 13 chairperson Roxanne Pennington.
Pennington said they had done an inspection of the damages caused by the fire.
She said they wanted to assist the desperate family with building materials and labour, but with the red tape surrounding council property, it was difficult to assist.
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