Pretoria - The five children who died in a shack fire at Itireleng informal settlement near Laudium were left without adult supervision by their mothers who had gone drinking at a tavern.
This was revealed by an aunt of three of the five children, Johanna Masangwane, who broke down yesterday as she spoke about Sunday morning’s tragedy.
She said she wished the two mothers, who had been arrested, could be locked up in prison forever because “they don’t have care and don’t know what they are living”.
“We are in this situation because of girls who always spend time drinking alcohol. I wish they could die in jail.”
Grief-stricken Masangwane said she had not eaten anything since hearing the bad news.
“I don’t even have an appetite. I can’t breathe properly,” she said, adding it was not the first time the two mothers left their children without adult supervision.
Tshwane’s Emergency Services Department spokesperson Charles Mabaso said the incident was reported at 4.26am on Sunday.
“Firefighters arrived on the scene to find multiple shacks engulfed by fire and immediately started with firefighting operations. The remains of five children burnt beyond recognition were discovered in the ruins of the shacks after the fire was extinguished,” said Mabaso.
The five children were three boys aged 2, 4 and 6 and two girls aged 1 year and five months and 7, who belonged to the two arrested sisters.
Masangwane lamented the deaths of the children during a visit by Gauteng MEC for Human Settlements, Lebogang Maile, who came to assess the situation in the wake of the tragedy.
Maile expressed concern the four shacks that were burnt down were rented and the settlement was unhygienic and unhealthy for human
habitation.
“People are not supposed to be staying here because this is a dolomitic area. The affected families were renting from someone who stays here,” he said.
He said since 2016 there had been an increase of about 300 informal settlements to more than 700 in Gauteng.
“Our approach must be comprehensive, integrated. We are not just dealing with these informal settlements only. There are many other informal settlements that are not inhabitable areas.
“So we shouldn’t be taken by emotions, be excited and make pronouncements that are not going to be sustainable because here we are dealing with the real issue, people’s lives. We certainly don’t want to see people living in such conditions,” he said.
Maile also lashed some municipalities that didn’t have the capacity to prevent the mushrooming of more informal settlements.
For instance, he said, the City of Tshwane was allocated by the government more than R1 billion to provide temporary services to people living in informal settlements.
“There are issues of human rights that you must attend to but secondly there are informal settlements like these ones which must be relocated because this place is not habitable,” he said.
He said the government was grappling with addressing the problem of informal settlements, urging communities to co-operate and work with authorities to prevent the mushrooming of more settlements.
He appealed that those living in the informal settlements would have to register so that they can be known.
“But we will also ask the municipality to come and verify who is here and make sure that no one pays rent because these informal settlements are illegal,” Maile said.
Pretoria News