Residents in the Hangberg informal settlement in Hout Bay were handed over the keys to new bungalows on Friday, after their homes were burnt a few months ago. The Hout Bay Civic Association requested the assistance of Oceana Brands to put up new housing structures and recently, the fishing company built nine bungalow structures for the homeless families.

The handover ceremony commenced at the Hangberg Sport Centre on Friday with short addresses by fire victims, Wendy Corp, Oceana Brands and the Hout Bay Civic Association. This was followed by the handover of keys on site.

“These new tech bungalows they put up are water proof, mould proof and fire proof,” says Hout Bay Civic Association secretary Roscoe Jacobs.

The City of Cape Town had provided the victims with materials to replace their informal settlements however the Hout Bay Civic Association felt this was not sufficient enough to sustain these families.

The City gave a starter kit of iron sheeting to use as walls and roof, doors, windows, 30 sink sheetings, roof sheetings, bulk and some nails.

“One of the things they gave was corrugated iron for roof sheets for informal structures. I fail to see how this will protect these people from the harsh elements during the wet winter weather. We were grateful for that but we don’t think it will be enough,” says Jacobs.

The fire had occurred two months ago in the informal settlement of Hangberg not only claiming four lives, but left ten families homeless.

“The fire claimed an entire family of four which included a mother, a father and two brothers. The other ten families were left completely homeless without anything,” says Jacobs.

One of the families had indicated that they would not like to move back into an informal settlement.

“They decided to move back with the grandmother of that family, however, the other nine families had nothing,” says Jacobs.

The association was satisfied that they managed to a move a Muslim family into a home before Ramadan. VOC (Nailah Cornelissen)