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Emergency building kits to be issued only in terms of disaster declaration, residency certificates to be issued<p>​</p><p>Due to National Government budget cuts, the City of Cape Town is no longer able to offer the extra service of providing fire and flood kits to residents outside of declared disasters. For more than a decade, the City delivered an unique service by issuing emergency fire and flood building kits to residents. <strong>Cape Town is the only metro in South Africa that has offered this additional service outside of declared disasters. </strong></p><p>The National Department of Human Settlements however has drastically reduced housing funding to all provinces due to the National Government’s weak financial situation. The overall cuts in national human settlements grant money is impacting on the City’s delivery in many ways. The cut of the grant used for fire kits is the latest impact. <strong>The Human Settlements Directorate spent 98% of its Urban Settlements Development Grant (USDG) capital budget in the 2019/20 financial year. National budget cuts have seen the reduction of the City’s USDG by R118 million this year. The City continues to call for conditional grants not to be cut and for other solutions to be found nationally.</strong></p><p>Unfortunately, there is thus no money to continue this extra service that goes beyond our core basic services mandate as a municipality. We have explored all possible grant options, but since the grant that the City used to provide this service has been cut, there is currently no other way of funding the extra service. </p><p><strong>Fire kits will thus only be able to be issued in terms of a declared disaster and no longer for isolated cases. Worth noting, the City will still assist fire- and flood-affected residents in terms of a declared disaster and in terms of their resettlement. A new service that the City will be offering is the issuing of a proof of residency certificate which will be of valuable help to the qualifying residents. </strong></p><p><strong>The City will continue to look at ways to accelerate the delivery of housing opportunities for qualifying beneficiaries even amid the national budget cuts. </strong></p><p><strong><span style="left:-22px;top:0px;width:1004px;height:70px;z-index:251658240;"><img alt="The City spent approximately R106 million on the extra service of fire and flood kits over the previous three financial years compared to R169 million in total over the entire preceding decade. This shows a significant increase in costs due to the substantial unplanned growth in existing settlements and the increase in new informal settlements. " src="file:///C:/Users/ssolomon/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.png" style="margin:5px;width:890px;" /></span><br clear="ALL" style=""><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font></strong></p><p><br><strong>The following process will now apply after a fire or flood has occurred:</strong></p><p style="text-align:left;">1. Verification of those affected by the fire and an assessment to ensure the use of safe materials by the affected residents and that there’s no settlement expansion. </p><p style="text-align:left;">2. Removal of the fire debris, as required. </p><p style="text-align:left;">3. Demarcation of the sites by the City for the rebuilding by those affected. </p><p style="text-align:left;">4. Issuing of an official proof of residence certificate by the City to qualifiers. All due process will be followed.  </p><p style="text-align:left;">5. Request to stakeholders like the Department of Social Development, Electricity Services, Department of Home Affairs and community partners to assist, where possible.</p><p>Should funding become available again in the future, the City will certainly consider the roll out of kits as an extra service again. </p><p>The City will continue to do everything in its power to assist its residents. </p><p><br><strong>End</strong><br></p>2020-12-13T22:00:00ZGP0|#1d539e44-7c8c-4646-887d-386dc1d95d70;L0|#01d539e44-7c8c-4646-887d-386dc1d95d70|City news;GTSet|#62efe227-07aa-45e7-944c-ceebacca891dGP0|#c4b7c6dc-8375-4f5e-9dbc-dfae57ed56e6;L0|#0c4b7c6dc-8375-4f5e-9dbc-dfae57ed56e6|Fire;GTSet|#2e3de6c1-9951-4747-8f53-470629a399bb;GP0|#e93363a6-c35e-49af-8cae-eeafeaacd986;L0|#0e93363a6-c35e-49af-8cae-eeafeaacd986|flood;GP0|#a4eccbe6-2bec-49aa-ad58-8ed41a372c82;L0|#0a4eccbe6-2bec-49aa-ad58-8ed41a372c82|housing10

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