A week ago, a fire destroyed about 300 shacks in Langa, a township in Cape Town, affecting about 1,200 people. A week prior, massive floods had swept through KwaZulu-Natal, resulting in damage to over 4,000 homes and the deaths of about 450 people.
The KZN floods are one of the worst recorded ecological disasters in SA. On the surface, these two incidents seem unrelated. The fire in Cape Town, on the far west of the country, swept through an informal settlement.
The floods in KZN, on the opposite end of the country, affected both formal and informal settlements. The fire was likely caused by human action, which is a common cause of shack fires in SA. The floods, on the other hand, were the direct result of a convergence of both human and non-human factors.
Climate change, which is causing extreme weather conditions in the world, is often attributed solely to human actions. This is because greenhouse gas emissions have increased the greenhouse effect and caused the earth’s surface temperature to rise.
In addition to this, activities such as agriculture, road construction and deforestation are contributing to the significant change in the reflectivity of the earth's surface, leading to local warming and cooling. But there are natural factors that influence climate change. These are changes in the earth’s rotation and orbit, variations in solar activity, volcanic activity and changes in naturally occurring carbon dioxide concentrations.
Shack fires, on the other hand, are almost always caused by human activity, specifically by candles and other fire sources being left unattended and thus igniting a fire. The fire often spreads quickly due to the flammable materials used in the construction of the shacks and the lack of adequate water as well as emergency services. This was the case in Langa were shack dwellers frantically collected water from a nearby stream to battle the blaze as the settlement does not have taps. Firefighting efforts occurred late as by then, tens of shacks had caught fire.
There is one significant commonality in the KZN floods and WC fires: informal settlements and townships were the most affected. This happened because at the heart of the problem is the land question. Landlessness has resulted in the growth of informal settlements across SA. Landlessness is also the reason that townships are situated in precarious areas.
Furthermore, there is a high population density in townships – a direct result of apartheid spatial planning which concentrated the Black majority in small spaces while the White minority was given vast tracts of both residential and agricultural land.
The failure of the ANC-led government to meaningfully resolve the land question through equitable redistribution has meant that black people continue to live in areas that are more vulnerable to ecological disasters, and which also have far less capacity to adapt and respond.
The poor living in these areas do not have the resources to absorb the disasters, which means that even after the floods have subsided and the fires are put out, they still struggle to rebuild their lives. This devastating impact of landlessness is at the heart of why land expropriation should be an urgent priority for the government.
Even without the amendment of Section 25, to make allowance for this expropriation without compensation, the constitution still allows for expropriation for public good. There is no greater good than to develop sustainable human settlements for our people.
It not only addresses a historical injustice but it also contributes to the economic development of our country as this depends on human development. Unless land expropriation and progressive urban planning is pursued, it’s inevitable that more people, particularly the poor, will die in disasters both natural and unnatural.
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