The woman and her husband were parked in front of a private school in De Wildt when the car went up in flames at around 03:00. The husband was unharmed.
According to information at the scene, the couple had been stranded outside the school since around 18:00 on Thursday after their car broke down on the R566 in De Wildt. Local residents assisted, and the vehicle was pushed off the main road to a nearby location in front of the primary school.
The couple remained with the vehicle until it caught fire shortly before 03:00.
According to Ruan Strauss, owner of the school, he was alerted by security guards at around 03:00 that a car was on fire outside the school.
“When I arrived at the scene, the car had already been engulfed in flames for a while. A man was walking around at the scene and, when I arrived, he asked me to assist in getting his wife out of the car. Sadly, it was much too late,” Strauss said.
“While waiting for Madibeng Fire and the police, the man told me he had been standing outside the car, smoking, when the flames erupted. He told me there had been a can of petrol in the back of the car that he did not know about.”
According to sources, the woman was last seen buying coffee at a nearby fuel station shortly before midnight.
Police were still at the scene at the time of publication. Hartbeespoort News is awaiting further information from the police when the story will be updated.
