Johannesburg - Glen Volmink is lying in his bed in his bedroom in Plantation, Boksburg. His eyes crease with pain. His lower legs are swathed in bandages. His life since Christmas Eve has been an endless cycle of bed and hospital every day to have his dressings changed – with plenty of painkillers.
“I have no quality of life, he says.
But he is alive. Across the road, less than 70m away, the Brits family is preparing to bury four children: Jamel Eales, Sebastian Brits, Gerrie Brits and Adrian Brits. Jamel’s boyfriend, Ivan de Lange, also died. Volmink’s next-door neighbours, a father and a son, are dead. Across the road, a husband, wife and their son are dead. In the street behind, a father and a son. Volmink’s tenant, Zimbabwean Luckson Marufo, died too.
They are just some of the 37 people who have perished since the explosion on Christmas Eve at the underpass less than 150m away. The police are there with search and rescue people. They are exploring a report that another body part has been found.
Volmink heard the first explosion and left his house to investigate. A fuel truck loaded with liquid petroleum gas got stuck under the low rail bridge, and the gas was escaping.
“I got as far as the corner, and something told me to turn back,” he remembered on Thursday this week. As he turned, he was lifted into the air by the second explosion.
“I felt my legs burning. My skin was loose. I felt it falling off.”
The blast was so intense that a Springs resident, who does not want to be named, was driving on the N17 past Boksburg when the truck exploded. He felt the shock wave inside his bakkie.
“It was raining slightly, and I had my windscreen wipers on, but when that shockwave hit from probably four and a half kilometres away, it dislodged one of my wipers, and I had to stop and put it back in place.”
In Ramaphosa Park, the informal settlement on the outskirts of Boksburg, another family has been shattered by loss. Zoleka Ngqayimbena was working in Plantation as a domestic worker. She and her 14-year-old grandson Simakele Molo, who had gone to work with her that day, perished. Her other grandchild survived.
Ngqayimbena and Simakele were due to be buried on Thursday, too, but their bodies are still at the state mortuary. The Angel Network and the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), along with the Vaal-based Clive Mashishi Foundation, have been working to clear the bureaucracy, but on Thursday, they visited the house to hand over food parcels as the family tries to make sense of the tragedy and the loss of their breadwinner.
Trauma councillor Arielle Susman, who is a social worker at King David Primary School Victory Park as well as her own practice, has been meeting bereaved relatives and shocked survivors all week while Johannesburg charity Fingertips of Africa catered for Thursday’s mass Brits family funeral working through the night from their Sydenham base. All the activities have been coordinated by the Angel Network and funded by the SAJBD.
SAJBD National President Shaun Zagnoev visited Boksburg on Thursday with the organisation’s relief teams. He said it was important for the Jewish community to act.
“We encounter tragedy in South Africa too often, and the temptation, because of the enormity of this, is to allow yourself to feel powerless and just stand by and do nothing. Our approach is to do something, even if it’s small in scale. Any contribution we can make can help. It can encourage other organisations too.”
Mashishi and his team have been providing food parcels to eight families in Plantation and Ramaphosa. They have replaced 140 window panes that were blown out of 36 houses in the vicinity of the blast. They would have to repeat the process in a couple of houses after a police helicopter hovered over the blast site as rescue personnel chased down reports of more body parts having been found in the small suburb.
“It’s part of what I do,” says Mashishi. “I’ve been working with the Angel Network for the last six years. Last month, we helped when the community was trying to help find and cope with the loss of the 15 drowning victims of the Jukskei baptism tragedy.”
It’s the same for Yehuda Lazarus.
“We were called on Wednesday night by Clive, who told us to cater for the funeral, so seven of us cooked through the night and then got a vehicle to take us to the church this morning in time.”
For Susman, it’s about being able to assist in whatever way you can: “some people give money, others give time, for me it’s an honour and a privilege to help people using the skills you have. My job is to give them hope and, that way, help them cope.”
As the makeshift cortège of motorcycles revved up to take the surviving Brits family to their children’s funeral, Ashlene Volmink walked to her gate on the corner of the road.
“It’s so very sad,” she said.