On any other day, there would be a lot of noise in the yard.
As limited as they were in terms of space in the yard where two maroon shacks are placed, the three siblings would play from sunrise to sunset together.
Every now and then, they would let out a “Papa”, especially the youngest one, Mahlatse to get their father’s attention and he would also join in on their games sometimes.
But for nine days now, it's been quiet.
The last time Johannes Maswanganye (44) heard his children’s voices and saw their faces was on 27 August 2023.
Ever since the fire, he has been waking up with his body aching and hasn’t been eating well.
Aged eight, six and four, the two boys and one girl left with their mother, Zanele Machaka (37) on the Sunday to go to the following street where her sisters lived.
No less than five minutes away, Zanele’s sisters lived in two separate shacks neighbouring each other.
“They left around past 7pm, leaving me sleeping alone at our home. I knew that if they don’t come back, they’ll just sleep over there because there are two shacks so there’s enough space,” Johannes says.
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Lindiwe Machaka (39) lived with her two grandchildren aged 1 and 2 while Ntombi Masango lived alone and was not always at home as she spent most of her time at work, not too far away from Itereleng informal settlement up the Laudium hill in Pretoria.
In fact, that fateful weekend, Ntombi was home on leave but had to cut her off-days short and leave for work on Saturday, 26 August because she had an argument with her sisters about how much they drink in the presence of the five children.
“I regret going back to work because I had just left. My sisters drink a lot, even when I’m off, I don’t get peace.”
“What happened to the children hurts me so much because I had told myself that I was going to take them back home to their mothers in Mhlanga (Mpumalanga) because I saw how they were neglected and ill-treated,” Ntombi says, shedding a tear.
Before she left, she had told her sisters the plan of taking the two youngest children and they had agreed that when she gets her salary month end which was less than five days away, Ntombi would return the kids back home.
“It was not the first time that they leave the kids alone in the shack. [Fortunately], I’m sometimes there to take care of the kids and sleep with them. I always reprimanded them for this, and they are older than me. Even when I left, I told Lindiwe to hold herself and not drink too much at least until I come back to take the kids,” says the youngest of the Machaka sisters as she remembers the last moments with her sisters.
When Drum visited what was left of her shack and her sister’s shack, we found that the fire had destroyed five rental shacks in total which were mostly unoccupied except for the ones in which the children were sleeping in and the one whose resident ran out just as the fire erupted.
Speaking to us about the incident, a neighbour who didn’t want to be named says there was no scream or cries from the children when the fire engulfed them.
“I was woken up around 2am to come help put out the fire. It was only after we had put out the fire did, we discover the five bodies,” he says as he points out to the burnt clothing laying on the rubble where the bodies were found.
Believed to be the clothes that the children were wearing on that day, jeans and different coloured shirts still remain untouched and exposed.
When Johannes joins us at the scene, he struggles to bring himself to look at the rubble and instead asks to speak to us away from everything as he leads us out to where he used to live with Zanele and their children.
“When people came to my shack around 3am to tell me that my kids were burnt to death, I fainted. When I gained consciousness, I came to the scene and found that my children were not even recognisable.”
The eldest child had been trying to open the door so he could at least come out but even he didn’t make it as his body was found on the floor next to the door.
“Their mother was found at a shebeen called Shisong, up the road,” he tells Drum.
From what Johannes heard, the two sisters were warming themselves up with a stove in the shack while drinking when they decided to take the party to the shebeen. It is alleged that they then forgot to switch off the stove.
“If I had known that they locked the kids inside, I would’ve come to take them because she usually leaves them with me when she goes out drinking.”
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Given the postponement of their bail application on 5 September for address confirmation, Johannes says he supports the reason why they can’t be let back into the Itereleng community.
“They’re not safe. Even when they were arrested [on the same day], they were rescued by the police because the community was beating them up.
“I’m not okay after seeing them in court today because from what I saw, I think they are mentally disturbed by this as well,” he adds.
“I want her to come out on bail and explain everything because she left me to go to her sister’s house, not to the shebeen so I want to hear what she has to say for herself.”
Even if they are sent to Mpumalanga when they are granted bail, Johannes says that he will make the effort to go see her there because he’s not angry anymore.
Ntombi reiterates the same sentiment as she says, “They must go back to Mpumalanga so that they think about their life decisions as adults and feel the pain that we’re feeling outside here. I will forgive them after they’ve explained why they did what they did.”
According to Johannes, there’s an Indian guy who used to employ the Machaka sisters’ mother who offered to take the children’s remains and keep them until funeral arrangements are made.
Although he’d like the kids to be buried in Pretoria where he could easily access their graves, Johannes admits that she hadn’t married their mother, so he has to understand that they have to be buried in Mpumalanga.
Not much has been arranged in terms of the burial because DNA tests had to be done first so they now await results before they can transport the kids to Mhlanga, Mpumalanga for their burial.
