Man burns himself and family alive

By Staff Reporter

HARRISMITH – The Harrismith police opened an inquest docket after four bodies were found inside a truck on the gravel road between Mabate and Tshiame B-Khalanyoni, which burned beyond recognition.

On 26 August at about 10:00, the police were summoned to the gravel road by a few passersby who noticed a truck burning and tried to extinguish the fire but were not successful. One of the passersby noticed four human bodies burned beyond recognition inside the truck and summoned the police to the crime scene.

What appears to be human remains inside a burning truck while community members are trying to extinguish the fire.

The preliminary investigations were conducted, and it was established that the truck belonged to a 35-year-old man from Makwane village in Qwaqwa, whose name is known to the police. It’s alleged that he arrived at Tshiame B at about 05:30 to fetch his three children and wife, taking them back to Qwaqwa from her sister-in-law’s house. It’s further alleged that the man from Makwane village left home in the morning at about 04:30 to fetch his children from Tshiame B in Harrismith. He arrived at Tshiame B at about 05:30 to fetch his three children, a 10-year-old boy, an 8-year-old girl and a one-year-old toddler boy, with their mother, aged 32. All five drove off to Qwaqwa with a truck.

Remains of burnt truck after the fire was extinguished and four bodies were found on gravel road between Mabate and Tshiame B Khalanyoni.

Though five left Tshiame-B for Qwaqwa, they never arrived home. Inside the truck, only four bodies were found at the crime scene. According to community member Thesho Twala the family in Tshiame B said the five family members left together in the truck, so it is alleged that the fifth body of the one-year-old must have been so badly charred leaving no remains. Forensics investigations are still to be conducted to determined which bodies were found in the truck.

“When the ambulance arrived only four bodies were verified so we are only taking the statement from the family in Tshiame B that five people left together. It is so heartbreaking the way the fire was so strong and how we struggled to extinguish it, we are led to believe that the youngest child must have burned to smithereens. We will hear from the forensic reports whose remains belonged to who.”