Durban - “He cries in his sleep, he doesn’t want to go to school and will not go anywhere near a car.”
This is how a mother, Ntokozo Dlamini, described the experience of her 5-year-old son, Lethukuthula Dlamini, one of the 20 children involved in a crash in Gamalakhe, Port Shepstone, on Wednesday afternoon, when the bakkie transporting them from school overturned.
The accident is the latest involving schoolchildren and it has prompted the DA to call for urgent action by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport to ensure pupils are carried to and from school safely.
This week’s crash and the fresh call for swift action comes after the January incident in Imbali, Pietermaritzburg, when eight children were killed and others injured when the bakkie they were being ferried home in, crashed.
Since then, two Ladysmith pupils were also killed when the bakkie they were in was involved in an accident.
Two children were seriously injured in Wednesday’s crash on the South Coast, while the other 18 suffered minor injuries, said Robert McKenzie of Emergency Medical Services, who attended the scene.
The two injured children were treated at the Gamalakhe community health centre and discharged.
Lethukuthula had been left shaken by the experience, said Dlamini.
The Grade R pupil at Sithembinkosi Primary had hit his mouth against one of the benches in the bakkie and lost two teeth on impact.
“He didn’t go to school today (Thursday) and I’m not sending him tomorrow (Friday). He is too shaken and scared. He also can’t eat properly because of the pain,” his mother said.
She said she was not comfortable with her son using bakkies to school any more, but pointed out there was little choice in the area.
“It’s mostly bakkies that transport children to school around here. There is no other safer way.”
Three-year-old Mvulenhle Shangase - who attends Zibambeleni Creche and Daycare - has also been left shaken.
His mother, Thempeli Shangase, said she thanked God that her son was alive.
“He always prays before he leaves for school and this time was no different. I believe that helped protect him,” she said.
“He slept fitfully last night. I personally took him to school today (Thursday) to make him feel better and safer.”
Daily News