By Emily Setona
KESTELL –Moruti supermarket burns down minutes after the loadshedding ends and residents of Thlolong lose a community supermarket that they relied on for replacing household goods.
According to a report from local councillor Bea Campbell – Cloete the fire started just after the electricity was restored, after the loadshedding schedule at around seven and eight o’ clock at night. Since there has been no water for a while now in the community of Kestell the fire brigade could not assist to put the fire out.
“When the fire started and this incident was reported the local fire brigade could not help because Kestell has been going for weeks without water and we struggled to reach the Qwaqwa fire station because of the issue of poor network services during loadshedding,” Campbell – Cloete said.
Once the fire chief was reached, he was unable to contact the station due to loadshedding.
According to reports the fire brigade was only reached at nine o’ clock, after a security company offered its guards to remain at the police station while the two police officers who were on duty that night could drive to QwaQwa to get help.
Assistance only came two hours after the fire had started and once on site the fire fighters could not put out the fire before the electrical department was on site because there were cables that were causing dangerous electrical sparks. The electrician was not yet on site as late as half past ten hours after the fire had started.
Community members who witnessed this incident they were very shocked and sad to lose a supermarket where they could get most of their household goods and the owners were very kind and assisted people in many ways. “The owners are in Bangladesh, so this incident is very sad, and they helped us with donating some cleaning equipment for the Kestell clean-up campaign, so I am very sadden by this,” Moses Moloi a community leader and founder of Kestell clean up campaign said.
By the time of going to print the gentleman who is taking care of the store could not be reached for a comment.
