Residents rally behind east candle fire victims
Mother and nine-month-old baby narrowly escape death when their shack caught alight
A woman and her nine-month-old baby had a lucky escape when a candle fell over and set her shack alight in Mamelodi East.
The fire was later blamed on lack of service delivery by the Tshwane metro.
Following the fire that destroyed Mmaphefo Aphane’s home, residents joined hands to assist members of the family who were left with only the clothes they were wearing.
Learners at J Kekana Secondary School in Mamelodi West, #Notinmyname organisation and the Back-to-School campaign rallied around to organise clothes, furniture, stationery and food for the family.
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Zoey Masuku Mabasa of #Notinmyname thanked the school for the generous donation and organising the drop-off centre for donations to the Mamelodi East, extension 17 informal settlement family.
She pleaded with the residents to help rebuild the shack.
Aphane said she was lucky that she managed to escape the fire with her nine-month baby before the whole shack caught fire.
She blamed the lack of service delivery for her misfortune saying the fire was caused because they were without electricity for almost three weeks.
Aphane said one of her children must have left the candle burning and rushed off to school in the morning.
She pleaded with the metro to provide services in the area. “Next time people will lose their lives because of this.”
Aphane said the fire destroyed the house and furniture.
Residents rushed to the scene with water buckets to try extinguish the fire but it had already spread.
Aphane thanked everyone who made the generous donation to her family and pleaded with anyone who can assist rebuild her shack and donate furniture to come forward.
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Bishop Dipuo Sebidi of Back-to-School campaign said they donated five bags full of clothes to the family.
Sebidi said more donations were still needed to assist the family, especially the father who was at work when the tragedy struck.
Ward 93 councillor Rabasotho Masupa said talks were recently held with the with the regional executive director of region 6 Billy Sepuru and the illegal electricity connections have been plaguing the area “for so long and the only solution to this problem is to relocate the residents”.
Anyone who wished to assist the family may contact Mmaphefo Aphane on 082-210-6811.
For more information about the programme, Lubbe can be contacted on alicelubbe@telkomsa.net.
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