Johannesburg, Monday
FIVE people including a small child died after a woman apparently poured paraffin over her husband, setting him on fire along with a historic Johannesburg hall which served as a shelter for homeless people, police said on Monday.
Representative Lungelo Dlamini said it appeared the homeless couple had a fight around 2:00 am Monday when the woman set her husband on fire, which spread through the historic Johannesburg Drill Hall near the city centre.
Rescue workers recovered five bodies, including that of a four-year-old child, a Johannesburg rescue services representative said.
”Five bodies have been found, including that of a child, believed to belong to the couple,” Synock Motobako said.
He said it was not known whether the bodies included that of the woman or her husband.
Three others were injured, including one seriously, Matobako added.
He said the historic hall was a haven for the homeless and it was earmarked to be a heritage site.
The representative said the incident happened when the Johannesburg City Council was in the process of moving the homeless out of the building.
The Drill Hall was the setting for the so-called ”Treason Trial” of some 156 leading anti-apartheid activists, who were arrested by the then minority white government in December 1955.
The trial, widely credited as one of the main catalysts of the organised struggle by the African National Congress and other liberation movements in South Africa, started in 1957.
It dragged on until March 1961, with most detainees being freed without going to trial and a judge acquitting 30 remaining activists on treason charges. – Sapa