By Buziwe Nocuze
- The children’s grandmother tried to rescue them, but the flames were too strong and the shack was locked.
- Residents say mothers often leave their children locked in shacks and want arrests for neglect.
Two young children died in a shack fire at the Wetland informal settlement in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, Cape Town, after their mother went out and left them alone.
The victims were a four-year-old and a seven-year-old who were sleeping in their shack when the fire broke out just after 9pm. Their grandmother, 59-year-old Nozimasile Bantshi, heard her neighbour calling out that the shack was on fire.
She rushed to the scene, but the flames were already too strong.
“I didn’t know their mother wasn’t there,” said Bantshi. “I tried to save them, but the fire was uncontrollable.”
Bantshi said she had warned her daughter many times not to leave the kids alone, but her warnings were ignored.
“She went out with friends and left the kids all by themselves. I kept telling her it’s wrong, but she never listened,” she said.
She described the children as lovely and said she still could not believe they were gone.
Western Cape police spokesperson Captain FC Van Wyk confirmed that police had opened an inquest.
“Two bodies, aged four and seven, were found in the debris of a burned shack in Wetland, Makhaza,” said Van Wyk.
He said officers were told that the fire was caused by a candle. The children’s bodies were burned beyond recognition.
The fire was put out by community members.
Pictured above: Two kids between the ages of seven and four years old died in a shack fire in Khayelitsha township.
Image source: Buziwe Nocuze
