Fire kills gran and little girl

Family mourns after the blaze takes their loved ones’ lives and destroys their home

Five-year-old Tshireletso Mokone couldn’t wait to be reunited with her class mates once she was able to safely return to school.

“That is all she spoke about for weeks,” said her eldest sister Tsholofelo Mokone.

“She enjoyed spending time at home with her granny, but she really looked forward to being on the playground with her friends after lockdown.”

But the Senyamo primary school pupil will never go back to that playground.

Instead her family will bury her this morning, after the girl died in a horrific fire, at her granny’s home in Meadowlands Zone One, in Soweto, last weekend.

Tshireletso and granny Agnes Mokone, 68, died while Tshireletso’s three cousins Omphile, Thapelo, and Lebo managed to make it out of the house alive, but with severe burn wounds.

The two died of smoke inhalation after the Mokone home burst into flames last Friday around midnight.

Tshireletso‘s eldest sister, Tsholofelo, was fast asleep in the back house of the family plot, when the main house went up in flames.

Tsholofelo says on the day of the tragic incident, the family went to sleep without electricity, and when the power was restored, the house was on fire.

She isn’t sure what triggered the blaze.

“My two cousins were sleeping in the dining room on a mattress. One of my cousins, Omphile, who is deaf, woke up and noticed the room was on fire. He quickly rushed to my grandmother’s bedroom to wake her up. She was still alive at that time but the smoke had already reached all the rooms.

“She was battling to breathe but she was still alive. She tried crawling out of the house but didnt make it. She collapsed at the front door.

“He then went to wake up my little cousin Lebo, grabbed him, and went to get my little sister. When he got to her room she had passed on already. My three cousins managed to escape out of the house but were burnt severely.”

The fire had ravaged the entire house, burning all rooms to the ground.

All furniture and appliances, money that the family had been saving, and food supplies for the month are now gone.

Community members rushed to the scene to try to extinguish the fire, but their efforts were in vain.

“It’s been very difficult trying to cope with this loss,” says Tsholofelo. “It’s heartbreaking because, firstly, we lost the head of the house. No one is here to guide us aside from our granny.

“I barely got to spend time with my little sister and that kills me. She was taken so soon and I will never get to play with her again. It hurts me to know that I will never see her bright smile again.”

“On top of the tragedy, we lost our home. I had to go on to social media to beg for help. It was out of pure desperation. We have nothing at all.”

Several members of the community, as well as South Africans on social media, have come forward this week to help the Mokone family with donations.

It has enabled the Mokone family to pay for the burials.

Planning a funeral during the Covid-19 pandemic, however, has proven to be a challenge for the family. “Regulations state that no more than 50 people are allowed to attend a funeral.

“My granny was a very well-known individual in the community. She was