By Graeme Hosken
Crime Reporter
"I tried to talk to him but he didn't listen. He didn't want to listen to me." These were the words of a young Pretoria man, Kyle Vivier, 21, who watched his close friend, Maketa "MK" Moloantoa, 21, plunge to his death at a Pretoria shopping mall on Monday night.
Moloantoa, a former Pretoria Boys' High School pupil, was sitting on the railing of a moving escalator on the third floor of the newly built Park View shopping centre, opposite Pretoria East Hospital, when he fell nearly 15m.
Moloantoa and a group of friends were on their way out of the shopping centre after having drinks at the Fashion TV restaurant when he toppled from the escalator on the top floor.
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Moloantoa died in Vivier's arms
Moloantoa died in Vivier's arms moments after Vivier reached him.
Fighting back his tears as he described how Moloantoa died, Vivier said they had just got on to the escalator when Moloantoa "jumped" up on to the railing.
"As he got on the railing he leaned forward. Suddenly he fell over backwards. He managed to grab the railing with one hand, but when I tried to get to him he fell.
"There was nothing I could do except watch," said a devastated Vivier, who was comforted by friends.
His description of how his friend fell to his death led to friends, who were listening, burst into tears.
Vivier said that when he reached Moloantoa he was lying on the ground groaning and bleeding.
"His head was badly hurt and there was lots of blood. I held his hand, lay next to him and tried to talk to him, but he didn't say anything. When the ambulance came they would not allow me in. I think he died then," said a shaken Vivier.
Calvin Rom, another friend of Moloantoa's, was standing behind Vivier when Moloantoa fell. He said the fall, which took a few seconds, had felt like ages.
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