Nonceba Busakwe, 64, died in hospital after a fire at her RDP house in Hlalani recently, leaving her family grieving and without financial support.
Nonceba Busakwe, 64, died in hospital after a fire at her RDP house in Hlalani recently, leaving her family grieving and without financial support.
The local fire department donated a mattress, two blankets and a food parcel last Thursday.
Busakwe's granddaughter and her husband used to stay with her in her one-bedroom RDP house, number 6470 Hlalani location, and she also used to financially support her son who only earns a small amount working as a golf caddy twice a week.
The fire is believed to have begun when Busakwe was preparing to cook on her paraffin stove and it blew up, setting her house alight.
Her only son, Zithulele Busakwe, 45, said his mother was alone in house when it happened. He said it looked as if she fell over her bed while trying to escape the flames, which is where she was found, alive, before she was taken to Settlers' Hospital.
She was immediately transferred to Port Elizabeth's Dora Nzinga Hospital, where she stayed for ten days before she died on Friday 16 March. Zithulele said the fire destroyed everything in the house, and, “my 12-year-old daughter was left only with her school uniform as she was still at school when the fire broke out”.
But he said that she has received some clothes from a school teacher and members of the community. Zithulele said neighbours and residents had come to assist in putting out the flames. But now Zithulele is unsure how he is going to support his family because his job at the golf course only pays him R80 a day, twice a week.
He said his mother was the only person who supported the family through her old age grant. “We don't know what we are going to do now because the person who supported is not with us anymore,” Zithulele said.
The family, which includes his step father, daughter and his girlfriend is now living in a temporary outside fold-away zinc structure which had been donated by the provincial Department of Human Settlements to victims of the 2008 tornado.
