Boys killed in hit-and-run accident

INLSA

Delft N2 Gateway residents blockaded Abedale Road with burning tyres, blankets and other items yesterday. They are demanding the city place speed bumps in the road after siblings Sanilsiwe Magqadeni, 7, and two-year-old Lethu Mfengwana were killed in a hit-and-run incident. Photo: Jeffrey Abrahams

Barbara Maregele

POLICE are searching for a hit-and-run driver allegedly responsible for an accident which killed two children in Abedale Road in Delft’s N2 Gateway housing development.

Sanilsiwe Magqadeni, 7, and brother Lethu Mfengwana, 2, were walking home on Sunday evening after playing with friends across the road when a speeding car knocked into them, killing them.

Police spokesman November Filander said a case of culpable homicide was opened. They have yet to find the driver of the car.

Filander said residents believed the car was a white BMW, but police could not confirm this.

Yesterday, hundreds of residents gathered in Abedale Road, where the children were killed, burning tyres and placing stones in the road to block cars from passing and to demand the city install speed bumps.

Earlier this year, the city agreed to allocate money to build speed bumps, after Mfuleni residents marched in protest when Lwandile Tongo, 11, was killed by a speeding drunk driver in January.

Magqadeni and Mfengwana’s aunt, Alicia James, sat outside their house with several other relatives, just metres from where the children were killed, and told the Cape Times the children’s mother was traumatised and distraught.

“We were getting things done for school when we heard this bang.

“We first thought it was two cars, but then we heard the people screaming.

“I ran out and saw my brother’s children lying on the ground,” she said.

“They were on the pavement walking home after playing with friends. I don’t know why the car didn’t just stop. Their mother just left them for less than five minutes when this happened,” James said.

She said some relatives and neighbours had attempted to chase the “white car” but lost it.

Neighbour Dorine de Kok said residents were tired of accidents on the road.

She was among the first on the scene after the accident.

“I heard this loud crashing sound. All the people ran outside because we are used to all the accidents that happen in this road. By the time we got to the children they had died, but some people say they saw the car come back and drive off fast again,” she said.

De Kok said she had witnessed a number of accidents in the last four years.

“The people speed down this road all the time. My dog was knocked down and killed last week and last year they almost drove into my side wall.

“We need to have speed bumps and robots here.

“This has to stop or more of our children will die,” she said.

Several other residents also called for speed bumps to be placed in the road to force cars to slow down.

Police cordoned off the road where residents protested.

It was later reopened to traffic.

l Anyone with information about this incident is urged to contact the investigating officer Attie Davids on 021 954 9062, Crimestop anonymously on 0860 01011 or SMS Crimeline on 32211.

barbara.maregele@inl.co.za