The remains of the shack in Itireleng informal settlement near Laudium where the five children died. Photo: Nigel Sibanda
The grandmother of the five children who died in a shack fire has been left angry and heartbroken by their deaths.
The charred bodies of the children, three boys and two girls, were found hugging each other in death after the shack they were left in at Itireleng informal settlement near Laudium, Pretoria, went up in flames on Sunday.
The boys were aged 2, 4 and 6 and the girls 17 months and 7 years.
Speaking to The Citizen, Johanna Maswanganye said she is devastated by her grandchildren’s death.
“My heart is sore, I don’t know what to do, only God knows. The law must be harsh on the parents.”
Maswanganye claimed it was not the first time the mothers locked the children in the shack unattended.
“The parents always left the children with the father of one of the children to go have fun. The police found them in the tavern.”
ALSO READ: Five children die in fire at informal settlement near Laudium in Tshwane
Firefighters from the City of Tshwane Emergency Services arrived at the scene of the blaze on Sunday morning and recovered the children’s bodies, which were burnt beyond recognition.
Two sisters, aged 37 and 38, have since been taken into police custody and have been formally charged with culpable homicide. They are expected to appear in the Atteridgeville Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
The City of Johannesburg has seen a number of shack fires in recent times, with incidents also reported in Diepsloot and other areas in the metro.
Visiting the area on Monday, Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Lebogang Maile said the growing number of informal settlements across the province was a result of land invasions.
Maile said there were over 700 informal settlements across the province, with most of them being unauthorised.
“We are dealing with a real issue… these are unhygienic and unhealthy conditions, and we certainly don’t want to see people living in such conditions.”
He said residents needed to be relocated to a safer place.
“Here in the City of Tshwane, as a government, we have allocated at least more than R1 billion to firstly provide temporary services because once people are here, you can’t say you are not going to give them services. There are issues of human rights that we must attend to.”
Additional reporting by Molefe Seeletsa
ALSO READ: Maile blames illegal land grabs for growing informal settlements
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