Shack disasters leave thousands homeless - SA

[dArKeR]

Western Cape provincial authorities and the Cape Town city council are seeking to control shack construction in a bid to avoid any repetition of the devastating fires that swept through three informal settlements at the weekend, leaving one dead and 5 000 homeless.

People will be helped to rebuild but the officials will insist new shacks are kept 3m apart, and the operation will also mean clearing trees.

In Imizamo Yethu near Hout Bay, 1 200 shacks and several brick houses were razed; in Polele near Strand, 70 informal homes were destroyed and an adult died; and in Kosovo near Philippi, 25 shacks were gutted.

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