Pretoria - The government should do enough risk analyses when bringing or providing services so that people do not have to pay for those services with their lives or those of their children.
The Minister of Public Service and Administration Senzo Mchunu and Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Patricia de Lille made these remarks when giving their condolences on two Mamelodi families whose children drowned in a construction quarry last Saturday.
Mchunu and De Lille made two concealed cash and grocery donations to the parents of Siyabonga Mabila, 7, and Tony Moore, 4, who will be laid to rest tomorrow by their grieving community.
Mchunu said he really hoped that from this incident the community and in particular the government would learn a lesson from what happened so that next time such incidents are avoided.
He said it cannot be said that just because the municipal government, provincial government or national government is bringing some sort of services somebody must die. He said that cannot be acceptable and that is not how things were supposed to work.
De Lille said they were deeply saddened by what happened to the children and they wanted to personally start their day by visiting the Moore and Mabila families and personally pass on their condolences.
Mchunu said the community of Skierlik Mountain View Informal Settlement should not think what happened to them did not reach the people in government because any human being will be disheartened by the incident that ended the lives of children.
He said: “Although we also work from Cape Town, our offices as ministers are here in Tshwane in the City. We also have our residence here in Tshwane. The incident that occurred here, affected the two families directly and the community and us are sad. You can build a school here for months but that does not mean the community must pay for that particular service with the lives of children.”
He told the Moore family, “It is indeed a tragic occurrence. We are here to say we are part of you as a family, we are from the other family, we are saying to both of you that we are very saddened by what happened and we sympathise with you and we know what you are going through.”
De Lille said: “We are here on behalf of the government to come and sympathise and to express our condolences to the families. What happened is very very painful and we are really touched as the government.”
The Moore family spokesperson and uncle of the deceased, Deon Moore, said the families were happy to have received support from all spheres of government and hoped that they would not just disappear after the funeral.
Pretoria News