Food parcels for fire victims

Victims of a fire in Diepsloot were given much-needed help in the form of food parcels. The City’s largesse extended to unemployed people in the area.
PHUTI Masebe, a 38-year-old unemployed mother of three from Diepsloot, said she was grateful that the City of Johannesburg cared about its people, particularly during times of distress.

An ecstatic Augustine Dlamini receives a food parcel from MMC Chris VondoAn ecstatic Augustine Dlamini receives a food parcel from MMC Chris VondoMasebe is one of the victims of a fire on 30 August in extension 12 in Diepsloot. One side of her shack was damaged and her children’s school books were burned, she explained.

She said that on around 10pm, she and her children smelled smoke. “We all ran out to seek help from our neighbours.”

About seven shacks were affected, and one person is still in hospital.

In response to their need, the member of the mayoral committee for community development, Chris Vondo – who is from Diepsloot – handed out food parcels to the fire victims and other unemployed people in the area, on 7 September, at the multipurpose centre in Extension 7.

Speaking to about 200 residents who live below the poverty level, Vondo assured them that the City was a listening and caring government. “You are not alone,” he said.

“It gives me a great pleasure to come and comfort the families whose shacks were gutted during a recent fire accident.” Vondo said Joburg’s mandate was to fulfil the vision of “enhancing personal growth and social mobility so that challenges of poverty, vulnerability, inequality, social exclusion are fundamentally addressed”.

He also took the opportunity to speak about the City’s ongoing Growth and Development Strategy public participation process, GDS2040, and encouraged people from the township to participate. The process is asking for residents to have a say in the development of the city.

Residents must voice the changes they wanted to see in their communities by writing them down and handing the letter to their ward counsellors, Vondo said. “GDS is the programme that seeks to change the face of Joburg and make it a liveable place for all who live in it.”

is just one of people who got help from the CityPhuthi Masebe is just one of 200 people who got help from the CityHe also commended community members who helped others during disasters, as it showed that “people have the power to fix things for themselves”.

Abraham Maboke, the local ward councillor thanked the City and praised Vondo for proving that indeed “charity begins at home”.

The number of people living in shacks in Diepsloot was higher than the number of people who lived in houses, Maboke said, adding that “60 percent of our people are unemployed”.

Among the unemployed who received food parcels were Augustine Dlamini and Khanyisile Ntleko both mothers of three children, and also from Extension 12.

“At least for the next couple of days we will not worry about what to eat as we usually do,” said 41-year-old Dlamini.

Each one of the 200 people received a box filled with food, including two kilograms of rice, 2,5kg of maize meal, a kilo of sugar, cooking oil and teabags.