Her kids were staying with her parents back in Umsinga, KwaZulu Natal when she brought them to Joburg in January. This is the decision Van Wyk Ngcobo says, she will live to regret. This morning, when the hijacked building in the Johannesburg CBD was raged by fire, her two minor children aged 4 and 7 were burnt beyond recognition. At the time, Ngcobo (29) says she was outside the building, where she is a hawker.

LOSING TWO KIDS

The distraught Ngcobo could not talk and asked her friend and neighbour friend Nqobile Lamula to relate her story. Ngcobo and Lamula have been residents of Usindiso Place of Safety for Women and Children for over 5 years. "I had been staying there for a while before the landlord decided to evict me because I refused to pay since the place was designed to cater for women and children. The place became unruly after they started renting out rooms to men and foreign nationals," she said. According to Lamula, she was standing outside the building, next to Ngcobo’s stand, where she sells her veggies and fruits. "My neighbour is a street vendor and in most cases, we normally chill with her where she is selling fruits and veggies. When we saw the flames coming out of the building, we ran towards the building to rescue two of my neighbours’ kids but the fire was too strong for us to enter. It was coming from from all angles because there was no electricity and people use paraffin and gas stoves. In other parts of the building, some rooms were divided with cardboard, ceiling boards and other windows covered with plastics. My neighbour had left her children in her room because they have always been safe since they came to Joburg in January," she said.

TRAGEDY

Lamula said Ngcobo was still coming to terms with the tragedy as she lost her children and everything in the fire. "She is still in disbelief, as she had left her kids alone to fend for them. It is painful to see her going through this. She loved her children and we did everything we could to stop her from going inside the flats to rescue her children. The firefighters took their time to arrive at the scene and put the fire off. I never thought, in my entire life, that I was going to go through something like this," she said. Lamula said that her laundromat business also burnt down in the fire. "I survive by doing laundry for the people who stay in the building. I don’t know where my next meal will come from as many people lost everything in the fire. I blame the fire on the self-appointed landlords that began renting the place to males and foreign nationals," she said. The President is on the scene of the tragedy that has claimed 73 lives so far and left about 52 injured.