A mother is dead, her child and partner are fighting for their lives in hospital, and 14 families have been left with nothing after a devastating shack fire tore through the Swapo Informal Settlement in Copesville, Pietermaritzburg in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The blaze, which broke out while residents were sleeping, reduced about 14 shacks to ash, leaving behind a scene of charred rubble, twisted zinc and traumatised families.
According to KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport and Human Settlements Siboniso Duma, his office was woken by a desperate call at 3:30am from a community leader alerting him to the tragedy.
“At 3:30am we were contacted by the community leader, a distressed community member alerting us about the death of a female resident following a fire that destroyed 13 to 14 shacks in SWAPO Informal Settlements, Copesville – Pietermaritzburg,” Duma said.
Emergency services rushed to the scene but it was too late for one woman, who died in the inferno. Her child and partner sustained serious burn wounds and were rushed to hospital where they are receiving urgent medical attention.
Duma said the death comes at a time when the country is already reeling from a national outcry over femicide and suspected serial killings targeting women.
“The death of a female comes at the back of a national outrage over suspected serial killings and femicide crises in the country,” he said.
“Our hearts are with the child and a partner of the deceased who sustained serious burn wounds. They were taken to the hospital, where they are receiving urgent medical attention.”
The MEC said the fire has inflicted deep trauma on a community already battling poverty, unemployment and recent climate disasters.
“Critically, the rapid swinging and devastating transition from floods to catastrophic fire that destroys shelter inflicts profound emotional and financial trauma on families already facing socio-economic challenges,” Duma said.
Officials say the cause of the fire is still under investigation, but informal settlements remain highly vulnerable to fast-spreading fires due to overcrowding, illegal electricity connections and the use of open flames and paraffin stoves.
For the families in SWAPO, the loss is total. Clothes, identity documents, school books, furniture and food – everything was consumed within minutes. Children who went to sleep with a roof over their heads woke up homeless.
Duma has moved to intervene, deploying emergency teams to the settlement.
“It is for these reasons we have assigned teams from my office and the human settlements departments in the province and nationally to work with officials from Msunduzi Municipality to assist distressed communities,” he confirmed.
The teams will work with Msunduzi Municipality to provide immediate relief, including temporary shelter, blankets, food parcels and psychosocial support, while a longer-term plan for rebuilding is assessed.
A forensic investigators comb through the ashes to determine what sparked the deadly blaze.
The provincial government has appealed to residents to exercise extreme caution with open flames and to report illegal connections that increase fire risk.
