'Our dying friend's screams saved us'

When three young children escaped from a fire sweeping through their shack early on Monday, they realised the screaming that woke them belonged to their three-year-old friend who was dying.

Nosihle Ngonini was killed with 79-year-old Notasi Msutwana who had lived with her in a Gugulethu shack housing six other abandoned children and elderly residents, as well as their two caregivers.

And just an hour earlier in a nearby area of the Barcelona informal settlement, Mzwanele Mpuntsa, 28, was killed in another blaze.

'I was so scared I just started running'

On Monday, Samelisiwe Xabadiya, 11, still wearing pink pants and a blue jersey covered in ash, the only items of her clothing which survived the fire, said she had been sleeping when "loud screams" had woke her up.

"I was so scared I just started running. I ran to the neighbour and waited," she said, staring at the ground.

Xabadiya said her two friends Zimkhita Sixoko, seven, and Yamkela Mobala, four, soon ran to join her and as they watched "big flames eat the house" they realised Nosihle was missing.

"Then we realised it was her screaming we were hearing. She's dead now. I used to play with her. I'm sad I couldn't save her," Xabadiya said, speaking softly.

Nolusindiso Sixoka, who cared for the children and elderly with her mother, Beauty, said the children were in shock and the death of their friend had not sunk in.

'I'm sad I couldn't save her'

"They're still very quiet," she said.

"They don't properly understand what happened. My mother had some of these children and people who can't look after themselves here so we could look after them. Nosihle's mother Vuyokazi, 20, is still at work on a farm and hasn't been here since she heard her daughter was killed.

"She'll get here later. This is so sad." Sixoka said there had been a power failure late on Sunday, so people had lit candles, one of which could have caused the fire.

Tears filled her eyes as she pointed to the spot where Msutwana and little Nosihle had been asleep when they were burned.

"I could hear Nosihle screaming. I wish I could have saved her, but the fire was around her and I couldn't get to her," Sixoka said.

"I think - and hope - that (Msutwana) was sleeping."

Thembelani Sqhlulo, whose shack also burned down, said he had been friends with Mzwanele Mpuntsa, who was burned to death about an hour earlier in the other shack fire.

"It's just so shocking this happened," he said.

"I didn't hear Mzwanele screaming or anything, so I believe he was sleeping when the fire got him."

Police police were investigating the causes of the blazes, but no foul play was suspected, spokesperson Bernadine Steyn said. - Cape Times