In the pitch dark – moments after the deafening sound of cracking pine trusses and shattering roof tiles roused her – grandmother Pinky Chili clawed desperately at the rubble trying to save her family‚ who was trapped underneath.
Her desperate search came too late. Her daughter‚ Mpume‚ 27‚ and her two-year-old granddaughter‚ Sbahle‚ were dead under the debris.
The mother and child were killed when the roof of the Chili family home gave way in the early hours of Friday morning.
The home that Pinky Chili was building was a project to realise the dreams of her late husband and was meant to be a place of refuge for her family.
Now‚ surrounded by her grieving family and as her neighbours sorted through the rubble‚ Chili will forever blame herself for the death of her daughter and grandchild.
“Their [her children’s] father passed away in 2006 and I focused all my energy on them. Everything I did‚ I did for them‚ and I ended up killing them‚” she sobbed.