Cape Town - A family in Macassar have been left traumatised after their six-year-old son slipped into a water pit and drowned.
Luciano ‘Miertjie’ Demas, a learner at Cotlands Crèche in Macassar, was playing with his friends, 200 meters away from his house, at a construction site on Kramat Road on Monday afternoon.
According to his friends he slipped off one of the high sand dunes and plunged into the deep pit.
The child cannot swim and drowned and disappeared under the dark water.
His family says it took divers three hours to find Luciano’s body and bring him back to the surface.
His grandmother, Martha Demas, 57, says they are shattered at the loss of their little boy.
The grandmother says she felt something was wrong and ran out of the house even before her grandchildren came running to get help.
“I was out the front gate already when my granddaughter ran up to say Miertjie fell in the water and did not come up again,” she says.
“My heart caught in my throat and I ran to where he had fallen in. I called to him to come up and I hoped, but he never came out.”
Luciano’s mother, Florence, 28, sits on the couch, staring into space.
She arrived home from work after her son’s body was taken out of the water.
Body of Luciano ‘Miertjie’ Demas is recovered after he slipped into a watergat and drowned at a construction site in Macassar. Picture: Bheki Radebe/ANA Pictures
Martha says the mom had been sitting like that since she heard the news of Luciano’s death.
Five years ago, the mom also lost her three-month-old baby to meningitis.
She only has a 10-year-old daughter left.
Martha says Luciano is called Miertjie because he was “a tiny scrap of a thing” when he was born prematurely.
She says he was a sickly but vibrant little boy who crept into everyone’s hearts.
“Hy was a handvol lewe (He was full of life). He was a good boy and loved to laugh. Everyone will miss him, because everyone loved him.
“Hy was almal se kind (He was everyone's child), but he was mine first and I will love him until the end of my days,” Martha says.
Luciano will be laid to rest next Saturday by a pastor from Macassar who offered to assist the family.
Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk confirms: “An inquest docket was opened at Macassar SAPS after the body of a six-year-old boy was taken out of a water pit on Kramat Road, Macassar.”
A security guard at the construction site would not reveal who the owners were.