Pensioner left homeless after fire guts shack
AN ELDERLY Cambridge Location woman had a narrow escape when her shack burnt down last week.
Sitting on an old mattress on the site which used to house her small shelter, Laura Xego, 66, wept as she recalled being rescued from her flaming home by a neighbour.
Xego, who walks with the aid of a crutch after a car accident five years ago, said she lost everything in the blaze.
“I normally blow the candles out at night before going to sleep but on this night I must have forgotten,” she said.
“The last thing I remember is sitting on my bed after eating supper. Next thing I was woken by a strong burning smell before I felt someone pull me by my arms out of the shack.”
Xego said she has for the past week been sleeping outdoors, anywhere she can find a spot, and going door to door during the day begging for food.
Neighbours are looking for any relatives that can assist the pensioner.
Liyema Ntantiso, who owns a shack not far from where Xego’s was, said as far as she knew both the woman’s daughters had died.
“But we are hoping there is someone who can assist because this situation is really sad.
“She says she hasn’t been in contact with her extended family for years but now she needs them,” Ntantiso said.
Lunathi Eli said what exacerbated the situation was that Xego could not access her old age grant as her card had been given to a “loan shark”.
Social development spokesperson Gcobani Masiwana promised that a social worker would be sent to the area immediately.
“With issue of grant cards being kept by loan sharks, all we can do as custodians of old people is to send social workers to investigate the case and intervene where they can,” Masiwana explained. —