-By Bev Mortimer-
Over this past long weekend in the southern Eastern Cape two tiny kids perished in two tragic and separate shack fires in Humansdorp and PE, when their parents’ shacks caught alight.
In the first incident, police said on Saturday, about 4:15 am, the Dakuse family in Humansdorp, who were living in a shack next to Silvertown Golf Course in Kwanomzamo woke up with their shack engulfed in flames. The father, mother, two children and a friend managed to escape, however in the frenzy, the minor child, Bonolo Dakuse, aged 5, burnt to death inside the shack.
The Dakuse family were taken to Humansdorp Hospital for minor injuries and shock.
Police say the cause of the fire is unclear at this stage. An inquest is under investigation.
In the second incident in PE (Gqeberha, aka Port Elizabeth/PE), the SAPS said a two year- old boy died when a family shack was gutted during the early hours of this morning in Kingstown informal settlement in Despatch.
Just after midnight, police said the owner of the shack reported he was woken up by the smell of smoke and fire.
He ran out of the shack to get help and was assisted by community members to quickly save his family from the shack. Seven people were assisted out of the shack and it was realised the youngest child, little Adriaan Leeuskieter, was unaccounted for. The little boy lost his life in the shack that was engulfed in flames.
Police suspect a candle may have been the cause of the fire and are investigating an inquest.
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On a note of concern… (background info, presented as comment:)
The continual building of shacks by homeless people in informal increases the risk of fires spreading to other neighbouring shacks, it has been said continuously by experts.. The building of shacks appears to be the only solution for the homeless people in South Africa.
Hundreds, if not thousands of lives have been lost from shack fires. When one goes, inevitably a chain of neighbouring shacks, all in close vicinity, glow up like matchsticks and the occupants lose all their possessions.
This tragic situation is continuing daily in the Eastern Cape and in other provinces in South Africa.
For example, there have been several nasty shack fires with with up to a dozen or more shacks razed by fires in St Francis Bay in the Eastern Cape. It has been noted by what locals have told this newspaper, the main cases of the fires are candles or paraffin lamps. And there are fierce winds in this areas and few shacks are windproof.
More and more people are settling in the St Francis and Humansdorp areas and the local municipality care-taking the government land where they settle, does not stop them. And, as many shack dwellers are jobless, they pay no rates and they have no basic services (no electricity, no toilets, no water in their shacks). This awful scenario is also apparently taking place in some other parts of the country as well, it has been reported.
St Francis Chronicle 