{"id":74366,"date":"2017-10-25T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/74366\/petrol-was-meant-for-trip-not-murder\/"},"modified":"2017-10-30T08:58:09","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T06:58:09","slug":"petrol-was-meant-for-trip-not-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/news-headlines\/2017\/10\/25\/petrol-was-meant-for-trip-not-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Petrol was meant for trip, not murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Provincial police spokesperson, brig. Leonard Hlathi, said that preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect booked out two containers of fuel, consisting of 25 litres each.<\/p>\n

Read previous story: Breaking News – Mother, daughters burn to death in Extension 6<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

After the fire, only one container was found inside the minibus. It had very little fuel left inside.<\/p>\n

The 44 year-old suspect is a soldier from 4 S.A.I. in Middelburg<\/a>. He has since been placed under police guard whilst recovering from 48 % burn wounds in hospital.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Read: Armed robber shot at e’Mhluzi Mall<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

An eyewitness recalled talking to the soldier, whose girlfriend lived next door to him, on the fatal night. Shortly after their conversation, the fire broke out.<\/p>\n

The community attempted to douse the flames, but could not save the three women.<\/a> They have since been identified as Eunice Mokoana (39), Hlalifang Mokoana (17) and Karabo Seopela (9).<\/p>\n

The soldier later claimed that he sustained burn wounds whilst trying to assist his girlfriend who was struck by lightning.<\/p>\n

Other news<\/h3>\n

Eskom power cuts whole town<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Zuma to meet with SACP after Nzimande\u2019s axing from Cabinet<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Our democracy on a knife’s edge – could Ramaphosa be charged for treason?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Want breaking news on the go?<\/h3>\n

Add us on WhatsApp. Save the number 072 248 3855 on your phone and send a WhatsApp message with the words “Add me” to receive news broadcasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fuel suspected to have been used to start a fire that killed three people in Mhluzi, was booked out for an official trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":74367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Jana Boshoff","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[7058,8413,8416,5990,1438,8415,8414,1976,21966,21990,8418,972,8417],"class_list":["post-74366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news-headlines","tag-4-sai","tag-burnt-to-death","tag-children-died-in-fire","tag-extension-6","tag-fire","tag-fire-in-mhluzi","tag-killed-in-a-fire","tag-mhluzi","tag-middelburg","tag-mpumalanga","tag-people-killed-in-middelburg","tag-police","tag-two-killed-in-fire"],"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Local news"},"tag_labels":["4 SAI","burnt to death","children died in fire","extension 6","fire","fire in mhluzi","killed in a fire","Mhluzi","middelburg","Mpumalanga","people killed in middelburg","police","two killed in fire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}