Gogo Violet Budeli loses all in mysterious fire

Her husband passed on in 2010, leaving behind the foundation for a six-roomed house.

In harbouring and appeasing the spirit of her late husband, Ms Violet Belemu (60) of Tshisahulu completed the house and turned it into a modest home for herself and her family. Recently she was happy to move into the new house with the family. Little did she know that her happy new beginning would end abruptly on a sad note.

Thursday, two weeks ago, the worst happened. Her six-roomed house with all its contents worth thousands of rands was completely gutted in a fire and, according to her, the cause of the fire is still a mystery. Belemu, who survives on piece jobs, said she left a child watching television in an adjacent room while she went to a neighbour to buy an airtime voucher.  "I usually buy airtime for any eventuality in the course of the night and, to tell you the truth, I did not take more than 10 minutes at my neighbour's house. On coming back, I found my room on fire.

"By then, the fierce fire had spilled to the next room and in no time the whole house was on fire," she said. Belemu said it took her a long time to achieve her husband's wish but all her efforts were destroyed in minutes. "I am still in shock, I  cannot even tell as to what could have caused the fire. I am just hoping that God will reveal the mystery. I cannot point fingers. With the support I am getting from the community, I am gaining strength bit by bit."

She added that she had lost everything and that her daughter had lost all her clothing and school books "and she can't stop crying."

The local civic leader, Mr Thomas Rambuwani, said that the community was saddened by the incident. "We called a meeting of the whole block and we have declared the incident a disaster. We will all extend a helping hand to the granny to assist her in rebuilding the house, but we are also making an appeal to businesses to help in any way they can," he said.

At the time of our going to press, no case had been reported to the police.

Date:12 May 2016

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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