Durban - A mother is struggling to cope with the loss of her only son and her niece after they were trapped in a car in 31ºC heat.
The children perished from heat exposure.
Family members and neighbours poured into the house of Ntokozo Sithole, mother of three-year-old Bayanda Sithole, on Wednesday to pay their respects as she mourned the death of her boy.
Her sense of loss was deepened by having been through two traumatic miscarriages.
The cousins, Bayanda and two-year-old Asiphile Sithole died after becoming trapped in a car that had been parked in the yard of a neighbour who is a mechanic. Another two children, who were with them, Ayabonga Sithole, 2, from the same family, and Phiwokuhle Mtshali, 2, who lives two houses away, were admitted at St Mary’s Hospital in Mariannhill. They were in a critical condition when admitted on Tuesday, but their condition has since improved.
When The Mercury visited on Wednesday, the devastated family and neighbours were trying to come to terms with the tragedy. An aunt of the children, Jabu Khuzwayo, who spoke to The Mercury, said they had seen and read about such incidents but never thought it could happen to them
“It is beyond pain, it is still unbelievable. We saw them lying there before they were taken to the clinic,” she said.
Khuzwayo said the four toddlers had been playing in front of their house as normal. When Phiwokuhle, who had visited them, wanted to go back home, they all left with her.
About 15 minutes after the children had left, there was silence in the yard and Bayanda’s mother went to look for them. She went to Phiwokuhle’s home and asked her grandmother if she had seen them. When the grandmother told her she had not, Bayanda’s mother started to panic.
“When she went to the neighbour’s house where there were parked cars in for service, she saw them lying on the seats as if they were half asleep. She tried getting them out but could not open the door,” she said.
Khuzwayo said the shocked mother raised the alarm and her screams attracted neighbours who rushed to help.
“The people managed to break one of the windows and got the kids out. They placed them on the ground and splashed them with water. They were making efforts to cool them and to get them awake,” she said.
One of the neighbours took the children to the Kwa-Dabeka Clinic, but when they got there two of the children had died. The two survivors were transferred to Mariannhill Hospital.
The mechanic, Ernest Phiri, who was at home on Wednesday, said the Toyota Corolla car the toddlers had locked themselves in belonged to one of his customers, who had brought it in so he could fix its locks. He had left the car in his yard and, while at his full-time job in New Germany, someone called to tell him about the accident.
“I was confused and jumped in the car to go to the hospital. Those kids were like my own. While working with the cars they would come play around and talk to me, and now this has happened,” he said. “I feel bad that they can just die in this way.”
Phiri did not lock the driver’s door “because opening it was a struggle and I had to fix that. I had no idea something like this would happen later”.
He said the children would play on and around the old cars, “but I was shocked when they told me it was the Toyota Corolla because they have never done that before with a car brought in for fixing”.
Police have opened an inquest docket and are investigating circumstances of the children’s death.
The Mercury
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