The killing of a well-known resident at his Strelitzia Park home in Kariega and several incidents, including a deadly house fire, ushered in a bloody New Year in different parts of the Eastern Cape at the weekend.
A family is picking up the pieces after Emsengeni Primary School pupil Lingomso Kompo, 9, died in a devastating fire on January 1.
The incident at their Johnson Road home in Soweto On Sea has left her mother grief-stricken, a 15-year-old brother shattered and another, aged only two, confused.
Earlier that day, Lingomso went to the beach with a friend before celebrations with her family that night.
When residents began winding down after an exciting fireworks display in the township, Lingomso was already asleep at home.
But her terrified screams broke the dead of night when, at about 3.30am, a fire broke out at the house.
Police spokesperson Captain Gerda Swart said Lingomso had noticed thick smoke blanketing their four-room house before fire tore through it.
“It is alleged she noticed smoke inside the house and woke up her family, informing them that it was on fire,” Swart said.
“The house was suddenly engulfed in flames.
“Everyone tried to rush outside. They managed to get out, but she could not escape the flames.”
Her charred remains were found close to the front door.
South End fire department acting senior director Roger Goliath said forensic investigators were probing the cause of the fire.
After The Herald visited the burnt house on Monday, Lingomso’s mother, Sikelelwa, 38, and aunt, Noludwe Mtiti, 48, tried to describe the horrific incident.
Sikelelwa, who buried her husband in January last year, was inconsolable. .
“I cooked supper once she was back from the beach,” Sikelelwa said.
“At about 9pm, my in-law came around, inviting me to spend a few hours at her house.
“That’s when I asked my mother and brother — whom my daughter and I lived with — to lock up and expect me back at 11.55pm. Lingomso was also in the house.”
Sikelelwa was horrified when, after returning, she saw the house engulfed in flames.
She ran frantically towards it to locate her daughter and family members.
“They ran out and left her behind. She could not make it out of the house,” she said.
In a separate incident a few hours earlier, a woman died and two others were left in a critical condition when the driver of a blue VW Golf 3 lost control and drove into a lamp post in Avenue A, New Brighton.
The incident happened at 9pm on New Year’s Eve.
Police spokesperson Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg said the two survivors were being treated in
Livingstone Hospital.
“On arrival [at the scene], police found the vehicle stuck between a lamp pole and a boundary wall of a house,” Janse van Rensburg said.
“The male driver received medical attention. Fire department personnel also treated one female occupant, while paramedics declared the other dead at the scene.”
In Pearston, police responded to a report about a fatal stabbing and, on arrival in Steenbokkie Street found a 20-year-old man lying in a pool of blood.
He had suffered a stab wound to the upper body.
“Detectives followed up a few leads and arrested a 26-year-old suspect a few hours later,” police spokesperson Warrant Officer Majola Nkohli said.
“The suspect will appear in the Somerset East Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.”
In response to Raul Damons’s murder in Kariega on Friday, Kariega station commander Brigadier André Swart implemented a 72-hour activation plan to find his killers.
After shooting him once in the head, they fled in his white VW Golf 6 GTI.
Officers found it abandoned on Winterhoek Drive the same day.
“The suspects are unknown and the motive for the murder is under investigation,” Swart said.
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