Comfort Maila
A Limpopo family have been left destitute after they lost their house, furniture and their car and they blame it on power cuts.
Their house in The Willows village in Sekororo outside Tzaneen in Limpopo was burnt down to ashes.
Witter Sebashe said the fire started at midnight on Wednesday soon after their power was cut.
“My wife and children were sleeping when the fire started,” Sebashe said.
“My wife woke up when she smelt the smoke. When she went to check she found the whole house full of smoke.”
He said they phoned the fire station in Hoedspruit for help but they were told that there were no emergency vehicles and the station was waiting for a vehicle from the Phalaborwa Fire Department.
“The fire department only arrived at around 4am and everything was burnt down already,” said Sebashe.
Sebashe explained that they suspect an electrical fault because when his wife and children went to sleep there was a power outage in the area.
Spokesperson for Mopani district municipality, Odas Ngobeni said the firefighters took two hours to respond to the incident.
“We acknowledge the limitations around adequate firefighting equipment, which also includes vehicles,” said Ngobeni.
“However, it would appear that the biggest challenge in this instance might have been a communication gap between our employees in that unit.”
Ngobeni said they are doing an internal investigation to avoid a similar occurrence in future but also, to hold accountable anyone who might have been negligent.
Sebashe said he is grateful that no lives were lost.
“However, we have lost all our belongings,” he said.
Eskom’s Customer Relations Manager in Mopani, Thoma Ceko, advised that the Sebashe family report the incident to the power utility.
He also advised Eskom customers to get qualified electricians who will issue them with a Certificate of Compliance to protect their equipment from being damaged by load shedding or load reduction.
The Sebashe family is pleading for any form of donation to rebuild their lives.
