Mystery fire baffles Alex pensioner
ALEXANDRA – Being a pensioner with meagre resources, Mabusela has since opened a bank account for Good Samaritans who might want to help her.
An Alexandra woman who is single and a pensioner is still baffled by the origins of a mysterious fire that razed her home on November 18.
Olga Matlhodi Mabusela (65) is the owner of a home on the corner of Roosevelt Street, and the fire occurred while she and her grandchildren were visiting family members in Kelvin.
According to her neighbours, Mabusela said the fire was suspected to have started at about 01:45. A neighbour shouted for help but by the time other residents woke and joined the fight against the raging fire, it had spread throughout the house.
Speaking to Alex News in the company of her friend, Shirley Zulu (64) who contacted the publication, Mabusela said the fire destroyed all her household furniture, appliances and clothes, and the ceiling also had collapsed.
“I am just left with what I was wearing. I decided to pay an overnight visit to family members along with my two grandchildren. I always make it a habit that if I have to go to family or friends overnight, I take my grandchildren with.
“I dread to imagine what could have happened to them if I had left them alone overnight,” Mabusela said, adding that she had received a call to rush back to Alexandra as her house was on fire.
She arrived back home at about 03:45 to find neighbours and onlookers milling around her yard in the presence of firefighters. Fire engines had to come all the way from Jeppe and Joburg CBD as there were no fire engines in Alex or Sandton, she said.
She added firefighters were still to confirm the cause of the fire. A Disaster Management team brought the family blankets and food but being a pensioner with meagre resources, she has opened a bank account in the hope that good Samaritans would help her.
Details: Olga Matlhodi Mabusela 072 101 9146.
