Candles could take a soul

Siphilile Hlathi

The so called residence of South Africa don’t have electricity so they use Candles and Gas stoves which may put their lives in danger, as many of the households are young headed families and single parents “I lost my mother and my twin through a fire disaster. I was 8years old when this happened but I could still remember this as if it was yesterday”. Said Gugulethu “My little brother was not in good health that night so my Mother decided to go to our nearest neighbour and ask for some Medicine but she didn’t find any help from the neighbour, so she went a little further for some help. I fell asleep when she was away unfortunately she left the candle on and all I could see after that was Flames and Community members who were screaming outside, trying to rescue us pity they couldn’t rescue my Twin. I saw my Mother trying to enter in the house trying to rescue my twin in that blazing fire, unfortunately it was too late’’ she added.

Candles are very dangerous when left unattended, not to mention when left with children. What hurts the most is that the lives of two innocent souls were lost during the process of our Municipality failing to provide people for the squatter camps with Electricity. Many people are suffering by only using the means of Candles and Gas Stoves because it can put their Lives in danger. Some of them have tried the connection of Izinyokanyoka but the residence from nearby RDP’s reported them to the Municipality “What does the Municipality want from us because we’re trying to move with times? We can’t be putting our lives at risk just because we stay in Shack’s while there are some people who are using Electricity. I think that is not fair as a human being we all have Equal Human Rights” said Sipho as an affected residence.