Three children were killed when their shack and three others caught alight at Browns Farm in Philippi‚ the City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue Service said on Tuesday.

"We responded there at 9.18pm [on Monday] night‚" said spokesperson Theo Layne.

"Four informal structures were destroyed in the blaze. Two male minors and one female minor sustained fatal burns‚" he added.

Layne said the cause of the fire was still being investigated.

"Twenty people were left homeless because of the fire‚" he said.

He added that all of the children killed in the blaze were from the same home.

This incident happened just hours after four other children died in a fire in Alexandra township in Johannesburg.

Two women‚ the mothers of the four children‚ had left them home alone when the blaze started.

“On Sunday at about 5am‚ the police were called to a house in Alexandra‚ where children were left alone.

On their arrival‚ they found four children - aged between three and seven years old - in a fire at their home‚” said police in a statement.

A 14-year-old boy who was also in the house at the time of the blaze escaped unscathed.