Tshwarelo Hunter Mogakane
Mpumalanga ANC leader Mandla Ndlovu has defended the provincial government he leads in his capacity as MEC responsible for municipalities and disaster management following a fire that claimed the lives of four children in an informal settlement in Hendrina.
Ndlovu, who is MEC for co-operative governance and traditional affairs, was responding to criticism that the ANC-led government was failing to eradicate shacks and informal settlements that rely on illegal electricity.
Through his departmental spokesperson, Lindiwe Msibi, Ndlovu said the government was not to blame for the Hendrina tragedy.
"It would really be unfair to use the plight of our people to gain political points. The truth is that we are all aware of the country's high levels of poverty and the great positive attempts by the government to tackle these with integrated human settlement programmes.
“The eradication of informal settlements is quite an involved process occupying one of our highest priorities where suitable land is first identified and acquired, zoned accordingly as a township for residential purposes, bulk infrastructure for basic services is installed and then ultimately the construction of houses before people can be relocated to such safe places for settlement," Msibi said on Tuesday.
According to provincial police, the deadly fire broke out while the mother was away.
The twin boys and twin girls, aged 8 and 13, were left in the care of their 17-year-old brother.
Although police on the scene spotted loose electrical cables that prompted the suspicion of illegal electricity connections, the cause of the fire is still being investigated.
Msibi said the government was doing its best to improve people's lives by making it easier to provide people with serviced land and building implements to construct their own houses.
"The greatest challenge, however, is land availability and its cost for acquisition from private hands. We therefore can't say it's a government creation.
“By all means, records speak for themselves on a yearly basis regarding positive attempts for housing provision and eradication of informal settlements in this province," she said.
MEC Ndlovu is expected to visit the surviving family members this week.