Kwa Mai Mai fire survivors recount their terrible ordeal

“I do not know how I am still alive.”

Those were the words of Hlanganani Dlamini hours after he survived a fire that ravaged over 400 shacks at Kwa Mai Mai informal settlement in downtown Johannesburg.

Dlamini was the only resident who was rushed to Hillbrow clinic on Sunday morning after he suffered burn wounds in his neck, hands, back and mouth.

Another person died in the fire that started around midnight.

He told Sowetan that he was asleep when one of his neighbours knocked at his door shouting “there is a fire”.

“At first, I thought he was joking but when I opened the door of my shack, the flames engulfed me. I ran for my life and left everything behind. I was wearing a T-shirt and a tight, that is all I escaped with.

“My hands were burnt as I tried to protect my head from the flames. All my belongings went up in smoke, including my phones. My wife who is back in Msinga [KwaZuku-Natal] and my brother in Katlehong [on the East Rand] have not been able to reach me,” Dlamini said.

He was taken by ambulance to the clinic where he was treated and then released.

Dlamini has been living alone in the informal settlement since 2002. Before then, he stayed at Jeppe Hostel.

The cause of the fire is still unknown.

Johannesburg emergency services spokesperson Nana Radebe said they spent between four to five hours fighting the blaze.

“Our fire safety officers are doing preliminary investigations and also interviewing the community to establish where the fire started,” Radebe said.

Nqabayethu Khanyile, who ran a spaza shop, said he was still praying when he heard people shouting about the fire.

He got out and saw the flames going up the tree.

“Shacks were already in flames. I tried to salvage some items from my shop but what was in the storeroom, I could not get in as the flames were moving fast. All my furniture was destroyed in the fire,” Khanyile said.

He lived alone in his shop and have been in the informal settlement since 2008.

Another resident, Dumisile Madondo, was asleep when she heard people shouting that there is fire in the settlement.

“When I got out, I saw the flames coming and ran for my life. I was told that the fire started at a shack right next to my home. I left everything behind. I could not take anything with me even my identity documents.  The fire was so big, it was impossible for me to go back,” Madondo said.

Residents said it was the first fire that they experienced in the informal settlement.

Kwa Mai Mai is situated next to the Kaserne building, which was demolished by the City of Johannesburg last month after it too was gutted by fire in April 2021.

The fire at the dilapidated building killed nine people. There were many other fires at the disused building which served as public parking in the city in its glory days. 

Residents who lived in the building were moved to a nearby soccer pitch where they lived for several months before moving into new shacks erected by the city.

The City of Johannesburg has promised to build 1,500 residential units in the area.

Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse on Sunday said the temporary shelter used to house residents of Kaserne will be expanded to accommodate people from Kwa Mai Mai.

“We’ve contacted the MMC for community development who will make available a facility in the short-term while the housing department gets the site across the road ready close to where the people from the Kaserne building are. That will take 72 hours to a week to do.

“We’ve got partners who will work with social development to provide food, blankets and mattresses. The biggest lesson out of this is that illegal connections are a big liability not only to the city but also to the occupants of those properties that are connected. We’ve lost too many lives because of this,” said Phalatse.