Marion Edmunds
In the old days, the authorities might have tried to bulldoze the shacks that make up Marconi Beam, a small shanty town next to Milnerton, Cape Town. This week, following Saturday’s devastating fire which swept through the community on the wings of the south-easter, Milnerton Municipality was handing out bags of nails and wooden poles so that the homeless could start building again.
By Tuesday this week, construction was already in full swing, the township ringing with the sounds of hammers on planks and corrugated iron. The fire had burnt 800 or so shacks and about a thousand people were left without roofs over their heads. It was the second time in two weeks that a fire had raged through the community, burning homes, possessions and livelihoods. This time seven lives were lost.
There is not much anger left in the tired faces in Marconi Beam, only resignation and
“We have to be patient,” said a weary woman, who was standing with her friend, watching the men work on new wooden and plastic shacks.
Both women have been living in Marconi Beam since 1990, and have survived eight or nine fires. They said they came to Marconi Beam to look for husbands, Marjorie Wentzel from Maitland and Mary Skukuza from Kimberley. Skukuza was able to point out her husband, standing on the roof of a new shack, wielding his hammer. Wentzel’s face was lined and closed. Her husband had been killed in an earlier fire in Marconi Beam, two years ago. She had not found another one. She has three children to care for and, although she says she is 32, her face bears the wrinkles and cares of a 50-year-old.
There is no way of estimating the havoc the regular fires in Marconi Beam wreak on the lives of its mostly unemployed residents who, as it is, struggle to make ends meet.
“The community is very resilient,” said Milnerton Town Clerk Peter Gerber with a sigh this week. Gerber is co-ordinating the relief work in the wake of the fire. “Many people have lost everything,” he said.
Gerber and the assistant fire chief say that the fire spread so fast because the shacks are built on top of each other and are made with highly flammable materials. The only way to lessen the threat would be to build proper houses out of brick and have them spaced with fire breaks in between.
Ironically, Marconi Beam is on the verge of benefiting from the new government’s housing policy. A show village is to be built next month, as a precursor to formal houses — to be built as part of the national housing scheme.
In the meantime, however, the community is dependent on aid and its own ingenuity to
The municipality declared the area a civil disaster area this week and has been handing out the building kits, blankets, mattresses and emergency food parcels since Saturday. The municipality already provides potable water, a refuse collection service and sanitation for the community.
The police have stepped in to provide a soup kitchen which serves two meals a day to the hungry who stand in a constant queue.
MEC for Welfare Ebrahim Rasool committed R250 000 to the community for relief, a move supported by national Welfare Minister Abe Williams, who says that the money will come from national government coffers. Williams visited the camp this week to inspect the damage.
Concern from government figures and the prospect of housing may be little compensation now for the empty-handed, who drift stone- faced between the half-built houses and the charred remains of their previous dwellings. But they talk about proper houses, and say they are waiting patiently.