By Buziwe Nocuze
Business owners at the Nyanga Terminus in Cape Town have to start from scratch after their shipping container premises were set alight in the early hours of Friday morning.
The three businesses were a surgery and two hair salons.
The surgery specialises in family planning, pap smears, pregnancy care, adult and child care, STIs, and child immunisation.
Nosithembele Sishuba, who works at the surgery, said she received a call around 2am.
“The security guards working at the terminus said there were car tyres under one of the salon containers. We are still confused about who would want to see our businesses destroyed in this place,” said Nosithembele.
“The idea of having a business here was to make things easy for our people. We are at the taxi rank and most people walk from their homes to our surgery.
“The fire is a setback but we will make sure we fix the surgery and continue working,” said Nosithembele.
Sello Mangwana, a salon owner, rushed to the terminus after receiving the call.
“The fire started in our kids’ salon and spread to our dreadlock salon before reaching the nursing surgery. We had a similar problem last year. Our third salon was also set alight,” Sello said.
“We don’t know who is behind this.”
Sello said the fires made things difficult for them and also put jobs at risk.
“There are a lot of people depending on their jobs in these salons. The people who do this are not only hurting us but also our workers who are taking care of their families,” said Sello.
The spokesperson for the Western Cape Fire Service, Edward Bosch, said three firefighting units responded to calls that the shipping containers were set alight.
“Quick action from the brigade resulted in the containers sustaining partial damage,” said Bosch.
No injuries were reported.
Pictured above: Three containers were set alight at the Nyanga Terminus in Cape Town.
Image source: Buziwe Nocuze
