BY MOLOGADI KEKANA
ELUKWATINI: The families who lost their minor children during the floods in Elukwatini in a flooded dug manholes may not receive compensation from the emergency fund as government as their situations are regarded an exception.
Two families in Elukwatini in Gert Sibande lost little ones in dug manholes flooded with the heavy rain water.
The pits were meant to build toilets and in one of them had been dug since 2019 according to the neighbour. The Buyisile Twala, mother of the 4-year-old boy Zanokuhle Olwethu Twala who drowned in a flooded pit dug to construct a toilet gave an acvpunr of tje devastating moment when she found out her child fell in a 7 meter flooded dug hole: “I was at a stokvel meeting when I received an urgent call to rush home, when I arrived I found the neighbour attempting to remove my son who had fallen into a flooded pit at the house in the next street”, said Buysile Twala. “When the police arrived they only helped me to call the ambulance again but they didn’t help me to take the child to the hospital”, she said. According to the neighbour Levi Shongwe, he was called to the scene by another neighbour to come and assist with taling out the child who had fallen into the flooded pit.
“What I heard is that the child was attempting to fetch his motorbike from the pit which was covered in water, the child obviously could not see that the bike was floating on top of a hole”, said Shongwe. “Since the whole was very long I had to use a step ladder to get inside the whole, eventually we used buckets to strain water from the hole”, he said. “By the time we took out the child, blood came out of his nostrils and water out of his mouth”, he added. According to the mother of the deceased Zanokuhle, before she arrived in hospital the ambulance had just went out of the gate and it was too late then.
“I carried my child and walked to the hospital and when I was about to arrive the ambulance. The Elukwatini South African Police Service Communications Officer Sergeant Mbokane said the police who arrived at the scene reported that the child was already dead so they couldn’t take the child to hospital. The statement however differs from that of the mother who said the child was still breathing when she carried him to the hospital. According to the spokesperson of department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs (CoGTA) George Mthethwa that the emergency support from disaster management is only provided based on the extent of the need.
“In Elukwatini… it is an unfortunate situation that a pit hole was left open. The Municipality will have to close it, if it is as dangerous as it caused a loss of life. However, it is the responsibility of the family concerned to build the toilet”, said Mthethwa.
CoGTA has previously reported through a media briefing that in one incident, a one-year-old child drowned in a river while the mother was carrying attemting to cross it and this discovered to be untrue.
When Timeless News spoke to the mother of the 1-year and 7 months child Prince Nkosi, he also drowned in a manhole meant to construct a toilet in their yard and that there is no river nearby. The local police also reported that through their investigations it was through a manhole flooded with water when the child drowned playing outside.
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