Illegal power line suspected as causing a fire that left 65 people homeless
By Peter Luhanga
- Victims say no emergency aid had reached them by Monday, with community leaders calling the situation “embarrassing”.
- Community leaders plead for urgent help as some of the 21 affected families sleep in the open.
A raging fire tore through Dunoon’s Siyahlala informal settlement on Saturday 8 November, destroying 21 shacks and leaving 65 people homeless. No one was killed or hurt, but the affected families lost everything they owned.
On Sunday, the residents who had lost their homes were seen raking through the ashes and twisted metal. Some tried straightening burnt zinc sheets to rebuild, while others begged neighbours for a place to sleep. There was no help in sight; no food, no shelter, no relief.
City Fire and Rescue spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said crews were called to the scene at 12:15 and arrived by 12:29. The blaze was finally extinguished by 2pm. Most of the people displaced were mothers and children.
Among those who lost all their belongings was 48-year-old Nolusindiswa Tokwe, a mother of four who lived in a double-storey shack with her children, sister and brother.
She wasn’t home when the flames broke out, and by the time she rushed back, the home she had spent about R48,000 building was gone, burned flat to the ground.
On Sunday, she gripped a hammer and worked among the ruins, straightening twisted sheets of zinc still attached to burnt timber.
All around her lay the wreckage of family life; scorched schoolbooks, a melted fridge, and charred furniture.
“I am heartbroken. I am unemployed and do not know where to start. I am not sure if I will be able to rebuild a double-storey shack. I am stressed and have nowhere to stay. We’ve been begging neighbours whose shacks were not affected to take us in. We do not even have money to rent,” said Tokwe.
Sinazo Quluba, who works at Burger King in Sandown, Parklands North, was at work when the fire broke out. Her three-year-old son, who is disabled, was at home with her sister.
When the flames spread through the settlement, her sister scooped up the boy and ran to safety.
By Sunday, Quluba and her child were squeezed into her sister’s one-room shack.
Her own place, a two-room structure she rented for R700 a month, had been gutted.
Quluba said she was grateful her neighbours managed to save her bed and some clothes, but everything else, including her cupboards, was destroyed.
She said she had no idea when her landlord would rebuild, as he had not returned to the site.
“I am thankful my child is alive, but I am not okay. I do not have a home,” she said.
Disaster management spokesperson Sonica Lategan said a call had been made for emergency aid, including blankets, toiletries and food parcels from the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) and the Department of Social Development. The City’s solid waste team had been asked to clear the rubble, and national Department of Human Settlement was notified to help with temporary housing.
Community leader Mamelo Leoto, from Siyahlala Section A, who was recording the names of those who lost their homes, said the blaze was believed to have started when exposed illegal power cables came into contact and sparked.
Carelse said the cause of the blaze was still being investigated.
By Monday morning, community leader Zukiswa Khaphakati said the fire victims were still waiting for help. She said it was embarrassing for local leaders to face residents at the site with no relief at hand.