The City of Johannesburg’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit needs to be capacitated to deal effectively with illegal land invasions. That’s according to the city’s MMC for Human Settlements, Mlungisi Mabaso.

His comment comes after a fire ravaged the Selby informal settlement in Booysens, where hundreds of people lost their homes.

Some say they don’t have enough material to rebuild and will have to sleep outside again.

Each year, tens of thousands of people flock to Gauteng’s main cities in hope of a better life. Some have no formal accommodation and settle on open land spaces.

“The anti-land invasion’s contribution is not satisfying us, because there are still people who are invading land here. People are still illegally occupying land. We are responding, but our response is not effective hence we are still seeing the growth of the informal settlements in the City of Johannesburg. Maybe it is the issue of capacity within land invasion,” says Mabaso.

On Monday afternoon, a fire gutted the Selby informal settlement in Booysens near Johannesburg, razing structures to the ground.

Residents are now scrambling to rebuild their homes.

Some are concerned that they will not finish by dark.

“It is difficult to be here. I am trying to push so that I can be able to sleep inside here today, but I don’t think so because I don’t have enough material to build. I am staying here with my partner and our nine-month-old daughter. All of us yesterday, we slept on the streams outside,” says one of the fire victims.

Some relief though, as Johannesburg Water was on site to repair damaged infrastructure.

Human Settlements was also on site to assess the situation.

The MMC says most of those affected are undocumented foreign nationals who are not willing to cooperate, fearing arrest.

Video: Booysens informal settlement residents count their losses after devastating fire