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Fire rages as shack owners are out of town

27/04/2009. A gilr walks past a burnt shack at the Benrose squatter camp. About four shacks were destroyed in the early hours of today. PHOTO: VATHISWA RUSELO
27/04/2009. A gilr walks past a burnt shack at the Benrose squatter camp. About four shacks were destroyed in the early hours of today. PHOTO: VATHISWA RUSELO

Luzuko Pongoma

Luzuko Pongoma

Fire ravaged several shacks in George Goch, Johannesburg, while most of the residents were away at the long weekend.

Songeline Hadebe is still to return from her home in Msinga, KwaZulu-Natal, to inspect the damage left by the fire.

Her sister Hlutshwayini Hadebe said it was hard to tell her sister over the phone that she had lost everything.

"I will wait for her return." Hadebe said.

"She will be carrying only a few items of clothing."

Fikelephi Sibiya and her husband were busy rebuilding the two-roomed shack after the incident. She said she had been woken by people screaming in the early hours of Sunday morning.

"I ran for my life," she said. "There was no time to take clothes or anything. I have lost everything."

Sibiya said the cause of the fire was still unknown.

She said they had not received any help from the government.

"We just voted for them and they cannot even send people to give us blankets and food," she said.

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