Police investigate Malamulele complex fi re

The Madume family that owns the Madume Complex in Malamulele and the local community are a state of shock, following a mysterious fire that caused millions of rands worth of damage at the complex.

Ms Happy Madume-Makhubele, one of the directors at the complex, said she was at home when notified of the fire at around 17:00 last Wednesday. "When I arrived there, the fire had already consumed most of the building. I phoned the fire services at Giyani, who told me it was not their jurisdiction. It was then that we summoned the Vhembe fire services, who arrived almost two hours later."

She added that by then most of the shops had already been gutted completely, but to add salt to the wound, the fire services did not have enough water and a member of the public had to use his own car to fetch water. "We struggled with the fire until the early hours of the following day. We are just happy they managed to bring the fire under control," she said.

Madume-Makhubele added that they counted themselves lucky as the fire had not spread to the garage. "Had it spilled over to the petrol pumps, we would be speaking of something else - a huge disaster," she said.

She further indicated that the cause of the fire was unknown and that it started at one of the shops in the complex. Local ward councillor Kazakhstan Baloyi said they were saddened by the situation at Malamulele. "Already we have had three or four devastating fires in the township, and in all instances the occupants lost all their belongings because the fire stations are very far."

Malamulele police spokesperson W/O Alson Mapindani confirmed the fire and said the cause of the fire was not known at this stage.“This will form part of our investigations and we have summoned forensic experts from Pretoria who are combing the building for clues. An arson case was opened,” he said.

Date:20 November 2015

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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