The death of five children who died in a burning hut has sent the shock waves countrywide. The incident took place at the Nyakelani village in the Letsitele area last Saturday night.

Supt Moatshe Ngoepe, the spokesperson for the police in the Mopani area, stated that the woman who was staying with the children left home to visit a boyfriend on Saturday afternoon. When she came back home the following morning, she was shocked to see from a distance that her hut was surrounded by a huge crowd. When she got closer, she realized that the crowd was busy trying to extinguish the fire, as her hut was in flames.

When she asked as to where the children were, the answer she got was that none of the five children had escaped the killer fire. One of the five victims, Given Machete (4), was the woman’s son while three were her siblings and the fourth a neighbour.

Although it was not clear at the time of going to press as to which ones were her siblings and neighbor, the victims were identified as Tapelo Letsoalo (7) (girl), Gladys Machete (9), Tiyani Mhlongo (3) and Tinetse Machete (5) (boy).

The cause of fire was still a mystery to the police and a post mortem was still to be conducted at the time of going to press. Supt Moatshe Ngoepe reiterated that it was still premature to say whether foul play was suspected. The police are investigating the matter further.