Pretoria - An investigation has started into the deaths of Siyabonga Mabela, 7, and Tony Tshweu, 4, who died while swimming in a quarry in Mamelodi last month.
Action SA leaders Herman Mashaba, John Moodey and Abel Tau yesterday introduced lawyers from Mkhabela Huntley Attorneys Incorporated to the residents at Skierlik Mountain View informal settlement.
Parents Pretty and Leonard Mabela and Madeline Tshweu had to summon enough strength to meet with the legal team at the quarry where the lifeless bodies of their children were pulled out of the water by emergency personnel.
Mashaba said even if the boys could not be brought back to life, the families deserved compensation, because “once again the City of Tshwane and its contractors had been negligent and more children drowned in a construction area they should have not had access to”.
He said the government had to be held accountable for the deaths, because any engineer who carried outside construction work had to take into consideration the health and safety of the environment.
Mashaba said they had full confidence in the ability of the legal team, because they “who took the very difficult case of the families of Lily Mine workers who remain trapped underground”.
Moodey and Tau said the legal team had finally concluded investigations pertaining to the deaths of the Hammanskraal boys who drowned in a trench.
Papers would soon be served on the City of Tshwane, followed by court action to have their families compensated, they said.
Mkhabela Huntley Attorneys director Wendel Bloem said the process would include investigations to try to understand what processes were already under way.
“I understand the City of Tshwane called a meeting with the families on Thursday; I first want to understand what is the agenda for the meeting.
“I want to establish the background and the purpose so that we attend with the family on Thursday if it is not short notice,” he said.
Bloem said whatever processes the City carried out now would run parallel with their investigations. Another independent investigations instituted by MEC Jacob Mamabolo is also under way.
However, Mashaba said he did not care much for “the so-called independent investigations”.
The families said they wanted justice for their children, because the quarry was only a small dam when they started living in the informal settlement five years ago, until the contractors began digging it up.
“We are in so much pain, although we are trying to be strong. It is so painful standing here and behind me there is a pool of water that ended my son’s life. I think we are tying our best to be strong, but it is so hard right now,” said Tshweu.
Mabela added: “This is my first time here since the morning of the funeral when the boys’ coffins were brought here for their spirits to be collected. I cannot even look directly at the quarry, because it brings me so much pain.”
Pretoria News