Pretoria - “I can’t believe I’ve lost such a bright child,” were the heartbreaking words of the mother of 4-year-old Privilege Sithole, who was killed by a runaway BMW sedan in Salvokop, Pretoria, this past weekend.
The mother, Anna Sithole, who sells chickens to support her family, said yesterday that she had started seeing the BMW driver speeding around the area on Friday afternoon.
The following day she and her neighbour as well as their children were hit by the vehicle just as they were making their way back home.
“Everything happened so fast that none of us had time to react or scream. I was holding my 8-month-old baby and I just saw the car speeding and swerving from side to side. I didn’t know where to run to or where to jump for safety.
“When I saw people lying down all over the ground and I instinctively grabbed the driver as he attempted to run and I tried to beat him, asking him ‘why?’.
“The next thing my husband asked me where Privilege was and that was when I realised she was nowhere to be found.”
The mother said she could not believe her eyes and would never be able to forget the state in which she saw her child when she eventually discovered her lying underneath the car.
“I found her buried under the car and trees, with a broken hip, legs, arms … it was too painful to see her in that way.
“My family is still in disbelief and can’t come to terms with all of this.
“She had not started with school. She was so bright and everyone always kept telling me how smart she was. I can’t believe I’ve lost that child. All I want is for the police to catch the man who did this.”
The mother and others in the community said that what hurt them the most was that the driver of the car, who they claimed had been drinking alcohol with two others, remained at large.
They said from what they understood, the man had taken his brother’s car from a car wash, and was attempting to show off his driving skills in the car by spinning it around.
This, however, resulted in the car getting our of control and ploughing into the bystanders before crashing into a tree, leaving death and grief in its wake.
Sithole’s wishes were shared by Alfred Taruvimga, whose wife and 4-year-old twin girls were also among the nine pedestrians who were knocked down by the BMW driver.
Taruvimga said the family were trying their best to be strong for his wife, who was still receiving medical care at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital.
The father said he was struggling to sleep in his room, as all he kept seeing were his children’s belongings as well as the stationery he had bought for them earlier on that day, as the girls were due to start Grade R yesterday.
“Everyone told me that my wife was literally thrown in the air, the way it was so bad. I don’t know why this guy did this to me. I hope the police can catch him.”
The families said that funerals were still being arranged.
According to reports, the police are still searching for the suspect who ran over the pedestrians before crashing his car into a tree near the traffic circle on Saturday afternoon.
Two women, one of whom is nine months’ pregnant, were transported to Steve Biko Hospital with moderate to serious injuries, while four other people were transported to the hospital with minor to moderate injuries, Tshwane Emergency Services spokesperson deputy chief Charles Mabaso added.
Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Mavela Masondo said according to information at their disposal the suspect was said to be driving his brother’s vehicle when he crashed into the pedestrians while travelling at high speed.
Masondo added that police had opened a case of culpable homicide, reckless and negligent driving as well as defeating the ends of justice.
Pretoria News