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HERALD Number 198 • 14th September 2007
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See page 5

Fire disaster shock

The municipality has refused to support
an application for desperate need for finan-
cial relief after the devastation of the fires of
25th June.
Acting municipal manager Bertus van der
Merwe stated in Council’s meeting last
month that fire is not uMngeni’s function
and therefore is not its responsibility; hence
the municipality is not prepared to apply for
the relief.
uMngeni officials have been severely criti-
cised by farmers for its role — or lack thereof
— following the fires, which amounted to
an estimated over R1 billion in damage to
farmers and residents of smallholdings.
Municipal manager Dumisani Vilakazi,
attending an ANC conference in Pretoria,
refused to return when alerted of the disas-
ter and when he called a meeting three days
after the fire it was clear that officials had
not yet been out to assess the damage.
The chairman of the Howick and District
Land Owners Association, Bobby Hoole,
confirmed that uMngeni’s disaster manage-
ment officer had not communicated with the
two farmer organisations Kwanalu or HDLA.
He has written to the MEC of local govt
asking whether uMngeni takes the situation
seriously.
In terms of the Disaster Management Act,
both the local and district municipalities are
required to pass a resolution declaring it a
disaster area.
“The farm labour are asking questions
regarding the progress,” he told The Herald
yesterday. “It seems as if uMngeni Munici-
pality does not want to assist them.”
He said that 121 homes were destroyed in
the blaze, most of them belonging to farm
workers.
The fire burnt out just under 21 000 hec-
tares of land, or 14% of the municipal area,
according to information supplied on the
assessment forms that had to be filled in to
apply for emergency assistance.
40 sheds were destroyed, one farm school,
Continued on page 3

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