Emergency services reported three separate incidents, with one blaze engulfing over 150 shacks and displacing hundreds in the Mfuleni settlement.
Shack fires are common in South Africa and are a perennial threat to the impoverished residents of the sprawling informal settlements near major cities throughout the country. / Photo: Reuters Archive
Two of the fires occurred on Saturday evening and one in the early hours of Sunday morning, they said. The biggest fire which happened around 2:30 am on Sunday engulfed over 150 shacks leaving over 1,000 people displaced in the Mfuleni settlement, some 30 kilometres southeast of Cape Town.Shack fires are common in South Africa and are a perennial threat to the impoverished residents of the sprawling informal settlements near major cities throughout the country.
Thirty years after the end of apartheid, land ownership and housing policy are still hotly dispute d issues in the country's politics and a key talking point in the upcoming May 29 polls.
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