Daughter, 15, run over during riots

077 01-08-2012 Ntebang Koobetseng a father of a critically injured Noxolo Motusi on a hit and run car accident at Tudor Shaft informal settlement in Kagiso. Picture: Tiro Ramatlhatse

077 01-08-2012 Ntebang Koobetseng a father of a critically injured Noxolo Motusi on a hit and run car accident at Tudor Shaft informal settlement in Kagiso. Picture: Tiro Ramatlhatse

Published Aug 2, 2012

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Kagiso - Ntebang Koobetseng was not present at the service protest march in Kagiso on Tuesday – he was sitting in the back of an ambulance taking his daughter to hospital. His daughter, Noxolo, had been involved in a-hit-and-run accident on Monday morning.

That morning, the 15-year-old was out looking for her brother when she was run over by a bakkie.

It was about 6am when Noxolo heard the riots in the area and she went looking for her brother.

“She wanted him to come home so he could take a bath and they could go to school,” Koobetseng, 47, said.

When Noxolo couldn’t find her brother, Tlotlo, at his usual spot, Ace Cafe, she went down McLean Street. That’s when she was run over by a man driving a white Isuzu bakkie.

“I was sleeping when someone knocked heavily on my door,” Koobetseng said.

He quickly dressed and ran to the scene. Paramedics were already there.

“I got into the ambulance with her.”

Noxolo was taken to Leratong Hospital.

“She kept trying to speak on the way but struggled to finish her sentences,” Koobetseng said. “The only thing I could make out was, ‘I went looking for Tlotlo.’”

The father said Tlotlo, 17, blamed himself. “He is heartbroken about it and breaks down every time he looks at her.”

The accident involving Noxolo, and a separate one in which a child died, led to violent protests in the area on Monday and Tuesday.

Koobetseng simply wants to know the identity of the driver who ran his daughter over. “I have questions and I want to look him in the eye.”

Residents used the accidents to march against poor service delivery in the Tudor Shaft area.

Yesterday, the Mogale City Council, along with community leaders and the police, formed a task team to ensure that the riots stopped.

Police arranged for Tudor Road, which was the main scene of protests, to be reopened for traffic.

The council has promised to provide school patrols from today, and speed humps will be put on the road by no later than the end of the week. Also, residents have been promised that they can look forward to an uninterrupted supply of water.

A mass meeting will be held on Sunday and all relevant project managers will be there.

The Star

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