PMB shack fire leaves 164 homeless
Dozens of people living at the Jika Joe informal settlement in Pietermaritzburg have been left destitute after a fire gutted their homes.
The blaze on Saturday night destroyed almost a 100 dwellings.
According to Acting Premier, Ravi Pillay, the fire was allegedly started by a man who set alight the shack of a woman he had gone to visit.
Pillay visited the settlement on Sunday. He says 164 people have been moved to a temporary shelter at one of the community halls.
"These were informal units that were completely obliterated. There's nothing standing, its all ash. People have lost their equipment, their clothing, their bedding and we are still establishing how many of them managed to secure their documentation. So it was a complete obliteration of those 97 years."
“We are saddened by what we see before us today, and we feel for the families that had to go through the traumatic experience of losing their belongings. We are thankful to the Almighty that there were no injuries or deaths in this fire," he said.
