Family struggling after shack fire
The family is in dire need of food and furniture to bring some balance to their lives.
Four months after a fire destroyed a Mamelodi family’s home, they are still struggling to move on with their lives.
“We lost all our belongings including the children’s documentation,” Matshidiso Mokone (50) told Rekord of the fire that burnt their shack in the Phomolong informal settlement to the ground in December last year.
Now, the family desperately needs food as well as furniture, all of which was lost in the fire.
Nobody knows what caused the fire, but on the day Mokone’s younger brother was home alone.
“He went to a nearby spaza to buy bread and when he came back the six-room shack was on fire,” she said.
“My brother couldn’t do anything except watch on helplessly as everything we owned burnt to ashes.”
Mokone said the fire also destroyed money they have saved up to buy food and for travelling back to Lesotho.
“We only found half-burnt money when we combed through what was left of the shack afterwards.”
Mokone said because of Covid-19 regulations, she was unable to change the half-burnt money at the bank.
“We desperately need help,” she pleaded.
Since the fire, the family has been forced to sleep in a one-room shack.
“There are five small children and the shack does not have a door,” she added.
She said the local community has been helping them rebuild the shack, but they still needed a door “for security at night” in addition to food and furniture.
“We are asking for any building materials to help fix the shack to bring some balance to our lives since it’s not safe at night,” Mokone said.
Tshepo Mmakanyane (22), founder of Tshepo Art and Projects, in partnership with Balcony view and Sunnypark shopping centre, assisted the family with food hampers and clothes.
They also helped with rebuilding their shack last year December.
Mokone added that she was also looking for a job to start rebuilding her family.
“I wanted to help the family because it was heartbreaking to see a family losing everything they owned in a fire,” said Mmakanyane.
Mmakanyane asked any other businesspeople to please also help the family.
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