A young up-and-coming entrepreneur, who saw his dreams go up in smoke after his business was razed to the ground a fortnight ago, says he has good reason to believe that it was an act of arson.

The enterprising Patrick Nesamvuni of Lufule Two is still counting his losses after damage estimated at R50 000 was caused to his business, Patrich Solution, when fire gutted his shop. Patrich Solution included a general dealer, IT centre and a fruit and vegetable market. All his stock was completely ruined during the incident.

Nesamvuni said he was sleeping peacefully when he received news of the burning of his shop. He rushed to the shop, only to find that it had already burnt to the ground.

“Firefighters arrived within minutes, but it was too late as the shop was completely gutted,” he said. 

“At first I thought perhaps we had left something on or an electrical fault had occurred, but I was surprised to see a broken padlock greeting me at the door of the shop,” he said. “This is an act of arson; I have no doubts about it. They just wanted to destroy everything and also confuse evidence and make it look like an accidental fire.” Nesamvuni said he was still in the dark as to the reason behind the burning of his business.

“As far as I know, I do not have enemies and no one has a reason to cause harm to me and my property. I think whoever did it is not a resident of this village,” he said. He also has thoughts that a business rival or somebody who is jealous of his success might be behind the attack.

“Why should one want to put me down? Burning my business is like killing me, because I depend on the business for my livelihood,” he said. He said it would take a long time before the business is renovated and this will have negative implications for his clients, who will be denied service that used to be on their doorstep.

Outside the shop, many stranded customers were seen milling around, looking very dejected. “We do not know where to get our daily supply of bread. The person who did it has dealt us a terrible blow. It will take us a long time to get used to other shops; this was our shop,” said one of the regular customers.