Cape Town - A fire at Site B in Khayelitsha in the early hours of Sunday morning left two people dead. Their bodies, found inside their shack, were burnt beyond recognition, said police.
The deceased were identified by their neighbour as Bongolwethu Nohashe, 31, and his girlfriend Sipokazi Ndamase, 25, both from the Eastern Cape.
The couple moved into the shack they were renting in April.
Both worked as security guards at the airport.
“I think they died because they inhaled smoke. They were sleeping,” said Tumi Bonga, who rented the shack to the couple.
“Around 4am, my son said that the house in front of ours was on fire. We tried to kick the door open. We couldn’t. The house was already in flames,” she added.
Bonga, 44, and her two children live directly across from the shack where the fire began.
Nosipho Nohashe, Bongolwethu’s youngest sister, described her brother as being very kind. She had last seen him a week ago.
When neighbour Nocawe Nkohla, 43, woke up, she heard someone crying out in the shack next door. Then she saw the fire.
“The people were still alive. They burnt there while we were watching,” said Nkohla.
Her son, a student at UCT who did not want to be named, said all his clothes and textbooks were burnt.
Provincial police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana said the cause of the fire was not yet established.
The police were investigating a case of arson, and no arrests had been made.
Cadet News Agency
Cape Argus