Survivors of the Jeppestown fire have urged the municipality to at least build them shacks after spending one unbearable night at their tent temporary shelter. This follows a raging fire that claimed the lives of four people in the early hours of Sunday morning and left around 200 survivors displaced.

THEY PREFER SHACKS

Speaking on behalf of the survivors, Sanele Phewa, who is a community leader, pleaded with the municipality to urgently move them or provide them with better shelters. Currently, the survivors are accommodated in tents at a nearby sports ground, where the Commissioner Street building fire survivors are also kept. Phewa, however, said the survivors have complained that the tents were cold and not good for human habitation. "Shacks or anything else will be better than this. At least you can live alone in a shack, unlike here, where we are grouped with people you don't know in a large tent. It's difficult, you are scared to even go out because you are not sure if your stuff will still be there when you return," added Phewa.

THE TENTS ARE TOO COLD

Phewa said it's impossible to sleep because the tents are too cold. "I didn't sleep; a lot of people didn't sleep. We spent a lot of time outside last night. It's cold inside the tents and they were flapping at night because of the wind but because we are poor, we will stay here and persevere," Phewa said. He added that the municipality promised to move them but didn't specify the dates. However, at the very same time, the Commissioner Street fire survivors are still staying at the same place in the same tents seven months after the incident that claimed two lives.