East Coast Radio Newswatch
ECR Newswatch @ 15H00
KZN's number one for local news. This is East Coast Radio News Watch. [MUSIC PLAYING] A fine-town woman says her family has lost everything after a fire destroyed her home of five years. The blaze broke out in the early hours of last Tuesday morning. Sameer at Saffla says she was up at the time to feed her 15-month-old baby. After that, my husband heard from sounds, and the dogs were barking. So when he went to see what is happening, he felt a heat wave above him. He looked up. He thought the roof on fire. He screamed, and he told me, take the baby and get out of the house. The house is on fire. Saffla says the roof quickly collapsed. So when the fire started on the roof, the sleeping boards were on fire. So those pieces were just falling all over in the house. And everything was just catching a light. And it was just a matter of seconds. And the fire just blew it so wide. We couldn't even go back to seeing any items. It was just terrible that you just stand back and you watch the things that you were so hard for. You go up in flames. Thank God that we've got out in time. Otherwise, we won't be so lucky. Saffla says although her family and their seven dogs managed to get out of the property safely, they were left traumatized. Metagrini fire says it took its crews from west full and pine town over two hours to fully extinguish the blaze. Saffla says they are staying with her mother for the time being. She says they hope they will be able to rebuild their home soon. A group of local Hindu activists is calling for the immediate closure of the Bangladesh embassy in South Africa. It follows reports of attacks on religious minorities after the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the South Asian country. Hasina's abrupt resignation and flight abroad last week brought an end to her 15 years of rule. Local activists held a protest in solidarity with the Bangladeshi Hindus in Phoenix yesterday. The group's leader, Mervyn Govinda, believes the South African government is not giving the situation the same attention as the war in Gaza. This way we had a peaceful picket highlighting also the genocide, the rape of women, the torture of students being thrown from three or four-story buildings because the Hindu is basically a class system, the rich versus the poor. Poor is not being heard in this country because if you have money to fund the ruling party then you'll be hurt. Hence, you see this sort of treatment. It's double standards by the SA government. We've got a series of protests planned. One of them is obviously at Durkow, probably by end of the street. - And the Red Cross's chief says it hopes that this week's, they hope this week's are scheduled talks on Sudan will result in solid humanitarian steps and remove obstacles blocking a ceasefire. Mariana Spolyarik has described the situation in the country as a humanitarian disaster. The US last month invited Sudan's warring sides to hold ceasefire talks in Switzerland more than a year after fighting broke out. Spolyarik says they are not part of the talks but adds they hope they will find agreements that will allow the organization more access to affected populations, especially in the north of Darfur. The top story, "This Hour", a buy-in-town woman says her family's lost everything after a fire destroyed her home of five years. You can find more news at ecr.co.city. - Here's what's coming up in your sport. Tim Baba Wuma praises his bowlers and the proteers drawn first test against the West Indies. Ben Stokes is in doubt for the Sri Lanka test series after picking up an injury in the 100 and the Premier League season is only four days away.