Two Somalian citizens burnt to death in the early hours of Monday after their shop at Bungeni caught fire.
According to eyewitnesses, residents saw a shop burning in the early morning hours. No one was in the shop at that time. Community members apparently tried to extinguish the flames, but without much success. The police were alerted and the shop owner was also notified.
According to the Waterval police spokesperson, W/O Foster Rambau, the two Somalian businessmen rushed to the scene and tried to extinguish the flames. It is not certain how they were trapped inside the building, but both died in the blaze. W/O Rambau said that community members and the police tried to put out the fire, but it was very fierce. "They tried to use buckets of water, but the water seemed to give more power to the fire. Everything was burnt to ashes. There was nothing we could do because the fire was untouchable," he said.
The two people who died were identified as Mr Ali Mahomed (35) and Abdulah Immow (28).
One of the residents, Mr Mzamani Sithole, expressed his shock about the death of the two. "They died a very painful death," he said. "We are shocked and we request community members to come forward with more evidence, because whoever did this deserves to rot in jail. We send our deepest sympathy to the family of the two," he said. Sithole said that when the firefighters arrived at the scene, there was little left to do but to try and prevent the fire from spreading to surrounding shops. It is still not known what had sparked the blaze. The damage is estimated to run into thousands of rands.
W/O Rambau said that an inquest docket had been opened and that the cause of the fire was still being investigated. "We have registered two counts of murder and one of arson, following the incident. We are definitely going to make a breakthrough in due course," he promised.
A surviving relatives of the two victims tells what happened to a reporter of the Limpopo Mirror, Maanda Bele, on the scene: