A three-year-old boy and his grandfather (70) died, while his grandmother sustained serious burn injuries when their house caught fire. The incident happened at Rotterdam village in the Hlanganani area on Thursday, 10 August, at around 20:00.
Mr David Baloyi, one of the grief-stricken family members, could not elaborate on the details of what had transpired, except that it involved two families. "All I can say now is that we are very saddened by the untimely death of our loved ones. This, we never expected; it came as a terrible shock to us. The worst part of it is that everything was destroyed in the fire and the family is left with only what they are wearing. Ten people must now sleep on the floor with no mattresses or blankets. We are very grateful to councillor Makhekhe Ngobeni, who has assisted us and has been with the family since the incident. Any form of additional assistance would be appreciated," he said.
Limpopo police spokesperson Col Malesela Ledwaba confirmed the incident, saying they had opened two inquest dockets. "We were alerted about the fire and rushed to the scene. On arrival, we found that a 63-year-old woman and her three-year-old grandson had already been rushed to hospital with serious injuries. Unfortunately, the 70-year-old man, identified as Mr Frank Mkhachani Baloyi, was found inside the burning house and certified dead by emergency services. The cause of the fire is not known yet and investigations are ongoing," he said.
Community leader and local ward councillor Mr Makhekhe Ngobeni said the incident had shocked the community. "We are all in mourning. The family needs our support in this time of their grief. We are doing all we can to help see to it that the deceased get a decent send-off," he said.
Baloyi said their wish was to bury their loved ones this coming Saturday (19 August), but that it would depend on whether the postmortems were completed.