Police failed me, says mother who lost two children in fire

The mother of two children who died in a mysterious fire in Winterveld last year November says the Loate police have failed her.

Mother Mpho Chauke, believed that the police have not done enough to find out what happened on the night she lost her children. Chauke said the police had not contacted her after they took her statement in Soshanguve block BB clinic following the incident.

“They never got back to me since the day they took my statement; I had to go back to the police station after six months to find out what was happening with the case.

“To my surprise, the docket was empty and my statement was not there; I had to give them my statement again. “They told me I should tell my son, who survived the fire, to come to the police station to give his statement; when he got there, the investigating officer was not there.” Chauke said she recently received a message from the police saying that the case had been closed.

“They did not even ask me or communicate with me. I received a message saying the case is closed. How can they close the cases without even informing me?” She said despite her going through counselling following the incident, she was still “not okay” about what happened to her children. “I have been struggling since the incident – and the police have failed me.”

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Chauke went out to celebrate her 34th birthday with friends and had left the children in the care of their 18-year-old brother on the night of the incident. It was not the first time that the brother had been left to take care of the children. He was sleeping in a separate room outside the house. She said the electricity was off on the night in question; however, no candles were used. “The electricity was off before the rain started.

An eyewitness who went past our home 10 minutes before the fire, later told me that there was no sign of any flames,” she said. “All of a sudden there was a fire. We were later told my children did not die of burns but were killed by the smoke.” Loate police spokesperson Constable Martin Maphoso said police were still investigating an inquest case and they were still waiting for a forensic report relating to this case.

“There is no docket that had gone missing,” he said. “We are still waiting for the report from the lab; once we get the results, we will be able to communicate what happened. The case docket has not been closed.”

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