Pretoria - With pickaxes and shovels in hand, angry residents of Nellmapius, Mamelodi took to the busy Alwyn Street to create “speed humps” on Wednesday, following a hit-and-run accident which left a 10-year-old schoolgirl dead.
The situation escalated after unsuccessful attempts to stop them by metro police officers, who fired rubber bullets into the crowd.
The officers were met with resistance and forced to retreat as residents were hell-bent on bringing an end to the fatalities on the road.
The child’s grieving father Tradeck Mazorodze told the Pretoria News of his horror when he was called to an accident scene, only to discover that it was his daughter lying dying on the ground.
His daughter, Ntombi, was on her way to school when she was struck by a speeding vehicle less than 500m from her home.
“She left the house in the morning like she always does; we spoke because I had helped her prepare for school,” Mazorodze said.
“We heard tyres screeching outside, followed by people screaming. I quickly ran out to see what was going on. I asked someone on my way to the scene to find out what had happened. They told me a schoolgirl had been hit by a car.”
The father of four said he was horrified when he arrived at the scene to find his daughter lying on the ground unconscious.
“She was not responding, but still alive. I had seen her a few minutes earlier - but there she was on the ground. Paramedics arrived, but could do very little to save her life,” he said.
Ntombi, who was in Grade 5 at the local Jan Kotlolo Primary School, died of the injuries she suffered. The driver of the grey Nissan Almera that knocked her over allegedly fled the scene.
“She was a lovely and intelligent child. On Tuesday, she was in Atteridgeville where she participated in a school poetry competition. She was not a child who liked to wander off or get in trouble,” he said.
“We are still in shock and disbelief. It’s easy to accept the death of someone who has been ill for some time. But it’s very hard to accept this happened to a child who was healthy and had her whole life ahead of her,” he said.
Anger spilled on to the streets of the township, where angry residents clashed with metro police officers who were preventing them from digging trenches across Alwyn Street.
The residents wanted to create their own speed calming measures, saying too many accidents were happening on the road. This, in their view, called for speed humps.
Pickaxes and shovels were swinging as they dug up the tar.
“We can’t live like this. There have been about 10 accidents on this street, three of them involving schoolchildren. We don’t want to bury our children when we can prevent accidents,” said Thabiso Masombuka, a resident of the area.
Attempts to approach their local councillor for assistance were fruitless, he said, after he reneged on promises he had made.
“We have also engaged Jan Kotlolo and Vukuzenzele primary schools to try to introduce a scholar patrol system to prevent these types of accidents,” Masombuka said.
The tension subsided after Joel Masilela, a councillor from a neighbouring ward, intervened.
“The councillor in this ward (Thabo Ntateng) has gone for training. I felt it wouldn’t be right for me to look on while something like this was happening,” said Masilela.
He told the community that he would be engaging with the office of the MMC for roads and transport Randall Williams with a view to put speed humps on the road.
“There are also plans to build another road that will run through Nellmapius to help to decrease the amount of traffic on this road.
“With that we hope we will at least be able to reduce the chances of people being run over on this street.”