Cape Times - A father has lost his two children after they died in a shack fire early this morning.
Nolubabalo Nowe 26 and her sister Sinovuyo Nowe, 17, died when a fire broke out in Ramaphosa informal settlement in Khayelitsha.
Toto Nowe said he left one of his daughters in the afternoon on Wednesday to go to work.
“I got a call from a neighbour around 2am this morning telling me that my house has burnt and I need to come home, but I could not understand why he was urging me to come home immediately because he knew I was at work and I would be fetched in the morning,” he said.
He said he managed to organise transport to take him home and when he got home, the bodies of his girls were already covered.
Nowe said he lost everything on top of losing his girls and now has to start from scratch.
He said they have been having electricity problems in the area and it might have been the cause of the fire.
“Our electricity is going on and off all the time and I suspect it might have gone off and when it came back, the box exploded,” he said.
Nowe said his girls loved him so much and they did not want to see him stressed and he will miss them.
He added that even though it is still early they do not know when the funeral will take place because he does not have money to bury them.
City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said three homes were destroyed in the early morning fire.
He said they received an emergency call at about 2am.
“When firefighters arrived at the scene of the fire on the corner of Symphony Way and Govan Mbeki, they found several informal structures alight but managed to contain and extinguish the blaze by 3.26am. Three informal structures were destroyed and the bodies of two women, aged 26 and 17 years old, were discovered among the debris,” he said.
Fire service medics declared them deceased and the scene was handed over to the South African Police Service.
Weekend Argus