Everson Luhanga
Last July, seven families watched their loved ones head off to join in the looting in Tembisa Plaza in Ekurhuleni and they have not seen them since – either dead or alive.
The families all say they have strong reason to believe that their relatives perished in an explosion inside Shoprite at the Plaza. The victims were looting inside the building when the explosion happened.
The bodies of six other victims were recovered and their identities were confirmed in November, but seven remain missing.
To this day, the rubble from the explosion has not been cleared and the families of the victims have called for the site to be cleared so they can collect their loved ones’ bodies.
Cremildo Rodrigues said his beloved wife Silvia Rodrigues left home with her neighbour to head to the shopping centre with a crowd of looters.
“I admit that what they did was wrong and criminal. Those people have already paid their ultimate price by burning to death,” Cremildo told Scrolla.Africa.
“If there was hell on earth, they would have gone to hell for their crime, which was stealing.”
Cremildo said all he wants now is to give the mother of his three children a dignified burial.
“For seven months, we have searched for them everywhere including prisons, police cells, hospitals, and even mortuaries.
“The only place that we haven’t searched is the place my wife and her friends were last seen, which is in the shops when they joined other looters,” he said.
He said no one has taken responsibility and stepped forward to help clean the wreckage of the destroyed building.
“We are being sent pillar to post and we have tried many authorities to help us without success,” he said.
Phuti Caiphus Moremi said when his wife left she left her six-year-old twin children at home.
Phuti authorities have told him that there is a private investigator who will bring the report this week.
“I am impatiently waiting for them to tell us if they will look into cleaning the shop,” he said.
He says he no longer has an answer for his children when they ask when their mother is coming back home.
“At least if we know she is buried, we can have closure and be at peace,” he said.
