13 January 2026
An aerial view of Doornbach informal settlement in Dunoon where a fire tore through over 600 homes, leaving over 2,600 residents homeless on Friday. Photos: Peter Luhanga
Dunoon pensioner Sidwell Soyizwapi was still wearing the clothes he had on last week when his life’s savings burnt to the ground. Over 630 other homes at Doornbach informal settlement, also known as Site 5, also burnt down.
A decade ago, Soyizwap saved up R26,000 to buy a shack on a six-by-six-metre plot in the community. Over the years, he extended and built a double-storey structure, with an upstairs room for himself and his wife and a ground floor that doubled as a makeshift garage for his car.
His structure was levelled by a blaze that erupted shortly after 10am on Friday, leaving about 2,600 residents homeless. The next day, mayco member for human settlements, Carl Pophaim, said the City was considering sustainable ways to “responds to these fires”.
“We’re proposing reblocking. Community leaders are consulting residents to get their buy-in,” he said.
Unsure of what the reblocking proposal would mean for their tenure, many residents rushed to secure their plots. On Monday, some people collected material to rebuild, while others whose brick homes were destroyed began buying cement blocks to start again. Burnt Eskom poles lay scattered across the ground, wires still dangling. Nearby, queues snaked for nearly three kilometres as residents waited for food parcels from the charity Gift of the Givers.
Among them was Soyizwapi. He said he was fortunate to have managed to move his car while the fire tore through the settlement.
He added that he was not opposed to reblocking, provided the City allocated him a plot of the same size.
Ntombie Matiwana was visiting her sister in Khayelitsha when her home burnt down. She lost all her belongings and important documents in the fire.
Doornbach has long featured in the City of Cape Town’s reblocking plans, outlined in the Integrated Human Settlements five-year sector plan 2022/23 to 2026/27.
The plan lists Doornbach for a “super blocking” upgrade under the Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme (USIP). It estimates that around 3,310 households could be affected, but confirms the project is still at the planning stage.
Community leader Zukiswa Kobe said residents had been briefed about reblocking plans several years ago. She said when some people heard of the City’s latest reblocking proposal, anger flared. They felt the authorities were taking advantage of the disaster, she added.
According to Kobe, land at the Winning Way business park, purchased by the Western Cape government, had been earmarked for Doornbach residents as part of earlier housing commitments. Instead of being developed for permanent homes, the land was diverted during covid.
She said residents are now demanding the serviced plots they were originally promised.
Bulelwa Mayende, the acting ward councillor, said reblocking was not the problem. The concern, she said, was that residents felt the plan was being forced on them. “For the past 15-years reblocking was in the pipeline. It was welcomed by the community,” said Mayende.
Disaster Risk Management spokesperson Charlotte Powell said on Tuesday that Eskom and the City’s Water and Sanitation Department were working to repair damaged infrastructure in the area. She said Solid Waste teams were busy clearing debris.
SASSA will provide relief over the coming days, while Disaster’s mobile joint operations centre remains in the area to oversee rehabilitation and recovery.
In a statement this week, Pophaim said, “We acknowledge the distress experienced by residents and understand the mistrust which has emerged because of past delays.” He said R12-million is available for the site to be reblocked and contractors are on standby to begin work immediately.
Further questions about the reblocking were sent to the City but no response had been received by the time of publication.
Many people are sceptical of the municipality’s plans to reblock the area.