Four shacks were destroyed in a fire recently at the Bezuidenhout Valley caravan park. The residents are not sure exactly what caused the fire.
One resident, George Mthombeni, said he found his shack in flames when he returned from work. “I do recycling, so I leave here very early every morning. I left for work at 5.30am on that day to collect scrap at Bedfordview. When I came back around 9am I found my house in flames,” said Mthombeni.
“Everyone was standing here when I came back. When I asked them what caused the fire, they didn’t know. They speculated that someone might have left a candle.
“I don’t have a place to stay. The shack that you see over there, is my shelter now,” he said pointing to a shack.
“I wish someone can assist us to get a better place to stay. There is so much space at the caravan park but the councillor would not let us stay inside the caravans,” said Mthombeni.
A resident from Bezuidenhout Valley, Jennifer Deville, said Mthombeni is a very good man. “He has taken a lot of street children and given them a better life. He taught them to start their own recycling business and they stayed away from drugs since he took them and stayed with them,” she said.
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“Three of the boys he took in, disappeared after their shack burnt down because there is no place for them to stay anymore.”
Ward 118 councillor, Neuren Pietersen, said the people are making alternative arrangements themselves. “There was one fire that was started by a domestic quarrel in which one shack was raised to the ground. The people who lived in that shack have moved off. There is nothing more to add,” he said.
Meanwhile spokesperson for Jeppe Police Station, Captain Richard Munyai said no case was opened. “There was no case of fire that was opened at Jeppe Police Station,” he said.
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