These people in Kraaifontein thought Krismis came early, for their pets at least, after a truck carrying dog food spilled its load on the N1 highway.
Some of the cargo also caught alight, but that didn’t stop hordes of people grabbing as much of the hondeko s as they could and carrying it away in dirt bins, plastic bags, emmers and whatever else they could find.
The truck blocked one lane of the highway in morning traffic opposite Scottsville in Kraaifontein.
The driver of the huge truck, transporting goods from a factory shop in Malmesbury to Cape Town, says one of his wheels had a tyre burst.
Community worker Gavin Riddles says the tyre burst was so bad that it caused a fire to break out.
“I left my morning coffee just there and helped the truck driver seperate the truck head from the burning wagon,” he says.
“It could have been much worse if we didn’t move so fast.”
Riddles says he spoke to the manager of the dog food factory himself, who gave permission for people to take the food.
Resident Ivan Speelman says the food is like manna from heaven.
“It saves us a lot of money, because we can’t usually afford larney dog food like this. Some of the food is wet from the fire engines dousing the flames, but we are going to dry it out for our dogs.”
Constable Johnatan Filander confirmed a tyre burst caused the accident. No foul play suspected and no one was injured, he said.