About 2,000 people are homeless after a fire spread across Johannesburg's Alexandra township and destroyed their shacks on Thursday afternoon.
More than 600 shacks were destroyed in the blaze.
TimesLIVE reported that angry community members cornered a man they suspected had started the fire. The crowd meted out mob justice, severely beating the man who later died in hospital.
Residents allege that the fire was started as a revenge attack.
A woman who spoke to eNCA after the blaze described the incident.
"Those guys who were fighting ... came here to pay a revenge and then they apparently burnt one shack. Unfortunately, it affected all the shacks around here."
Police have opened a case of murder and are investigating the origins of the fire.