Chairperson, on 11 March 2017, while working in local government, I awoke to a frantic call informing me that a devastating fire had broken out in Hout Bay and was ripping through the informal settlement of lmizamo Yethu.
I arrived 20 minutes later to scenes that I can only describe as tragedy. Helicopters rounded the mountains in dangerous winds, while fire fighters traversed the steep terrain trying to extinguish the fire where the winds were spreading it west.
As we navigated our way up through the settlement to meet officials, we were passed by men and women hurrying down the
mountain to safety, carrying on their backs their last remaining possessions - mattresses, couches, suitcases of clothes - stealing their resolve to get down that hill and away from the fire that had already swallowed whole their homes. Children, some dazed, lost and confused, screaming hysterically as they ran after their terrified mothers barefoot. And as we approached the top of settlement where the fire had first started, the acrid smell of burning bodies permeated the soot filled sky.
Three people died that day; over 2000 homes of some our nation's poorest people were destroyed; and 10 000 people were displaced. The hon Minister Sisulu will remember that fire well, because she visited the recovery operation once in coming days. It was of course the last the city heard from or saw of her or head from the Ministry.