The possibility of declaring fire-ravaged parts of Mpumalanga disaster zones could not be precluded, Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi said on Monday.
Earlier in the day, Mufamadi and Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Lindiwe Hendricks conducted a helicopter surveillance of sites destroyed by fires in the province.
”Damage is quite extensive, [There is a] loss of lives, households [which have] lost their livelihoods, grazing lands affected, plantations affected, sawmill enterprises affected, loss of jobs,” said Mufamadi.
He wanted immediate assistance to be the focus of relief efforts. This included providing shelter, food and blankets, putting out fires and conducting assessments of the damage caused.
These assessments would indicate if resources needed to come from the national government as well as local government, he said.
”Wherever assistance is required, it will be given.”
Local government and other stakeholders were handling the situation very well, he said.
”People are working very hard.”
Mufamadi said he could not yet give a timeline by when all fires would be extinguished.
He also advised people not to speculate about the cause of the fire.
The remoteness of some of the areas where fires were ignited suggested that the fires were caused by human neglect, said Mufamadi.
Earlier on Monday, the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) said there was an animal ”emergency” in fire-ravaged parts of Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
”The injured and burnt animals need to be found and assisted. Large quantities of eye ointment are being sourced. Animals in captivity need to be checked. This could be chickens in coops, tethered animals or those in kraals, dogs that may have been chained — even birds,” said the NSPCA.
The council said many animals had burnt to death or had to be euthanised because they were too severely injured.
”At one farm in KwaZulu-Natal, 680 sheep have been lost to the fires. Many were burnt to death. Others were found to be still alive but so badly burnt that they had to be destroyed to end their suffering.”
The NSPCA was also struggling to source food for uninjured animals after fires destroyed huge swathes of grazing land.
Also on Monday, York Timber Organisation said substantial damage to timber plantations in Mpumalanga, Swaziland and KwaZulu-Natal would compound long-term softwood lumber shortages already facing South Africa.
York chief executive Lance Cooper said in a statement that fire had damaged an estimated 6 000ha of York’s 90 000ha.
A portion of a sawmill near Graskop was also destroyed.
Meanwhile, a Johannesburg man burnt to death in his house in South Hills early on Monday morning, emergency services said.
Spokesperson Malcolm Midgley said the man apparently failed to open the security gate at his front door, where his body was found.
The blaze appeared to have been caused by a gas heater that was left on. A second gas cylinder apparently exploded after furnishings caught fire.
Midgley said this would have given the man little time to get out.
”The house was totally destroyed,” he said.
Johannesburg police spokesperson Captain Cheryl Engelbrecht said the man was believed to be between 35 and 40 years old.
His name was being withheld until his wife, who is reportedly overseas, had been informed. — Sapa