Cape Town - A five-year-old boy with Down Syndrome has died after he was hit by a car outside a crèche on the first day of school.
Little Walied Jacobs, five, was hit by a VW Golf in Vrygrond last Wednesday after he left the building on his own.
Walied and his brother Nazeem, four, were with their aunt Nazeema Arries.
Nazeema is a volunteer at Where Rainbows Meet Training and Development Centre in Vrygrond Avenue.
The organisation also runs an Early Childhood Development Centre where Walied was expected to stay until his entry into a special needs school next month.
The centre was filled with hundreds of people as the organisation was handing out stationery packs to nearly 700 children that day.
Nazeema says the boys were sitting at the sewing section with other children while she quickly went to the loo.
“Someone just screamed that Walied had been hit by a car a few metres away from the centre,” she says. “I saw the community lifting up the car and then I passed out.”
It’s believed a visitor had accidentally left the gate open and that Walied slipped out.
The female driver of the VW Golf rushed with the family to Red Cross Children’s Hospital.
But doctors declared Walied brain dead and he passed away on Thursday.
Mom Washiela Jacobs, 47, says they did not hesitate to donate his organs when doctors made the request.
“I took it so: my son is not here anymore, but he can save another child’s life. He was an angel even after he died. They could not take his heart because he had two holes in it since birth.”
Nazeema says they have forgiven the woman who hit Walied: “She said she didn’t see him and we have already forgiven her. Allah knows best, this was set out like this.”
Police spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut, confirmed a case of reckless and negligent driving had been opened and that there have been no arrests.