Thursday, January 05, 2006

Jo Slovo anniversary fire leaves thousands homeless, again.

About 4 000 people were left homeless and 800 shacks destroyed as a fire ripped through the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa early on Thursday.

The blaze comes almost exactly a year since a huge fire devastated Joe Slovo, razing 4 000 homes and leaving 12 000 people destitute.

Earlier this week the Cape Argus reported that the large number of devastating fires in informal settlements has forced an increase of almost R5-million in the Western Cape department of social services budget for disasters for this financial year.

A statement by the City of Cape Town revealed that there were nearly 2 000 fires in informal settlements last year, leaving about 28 000 people homeless. Cape Argus SABC

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