Cape Town - While the families of the four boys who died after falling into a sinkhole at an N2 bridge near Nyanga received assistance from the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) on Monday, the sole surviving boy of the incident is left to cope on his own.
The five-year-old boy was the one who ran to report to the community after the accident occurred on Monday last week. Now his family are calling for assistance to deal with the child's trauma.
His aunt, Nomakholwa Mabangula, said the child was struggling to sleep at night and couldn't bear the thought of losing his cousin, Axolile Mabangula, 11, who was among the four who died.
The bodies of Iva Kalikopu, 13, Nqabayethu Mlaza, 12, Axolile, and Azola Quweni, 13, were recovered by emergency crews on Monday last week and in the early hours of Tuesday, after they fell into the hole under the bridge along the N2 highway at the Borcherds Quarry turn-off, close to Nyanga.
Mabangula said they had to relocate the five-year-old to Delft, because people in the community and the authorities, including the police, always questioned him about what happened, and that was traumatising him.
"He would wake up at night crying and calling Axolile. We are now afraid that this will affect him at school, as he just started with his Grade R at Leiden Avenue Primary School. We really need assistance," she said.
Mabangula said the leadership of the Western Cape Sassa handed over relief support to the families of the four children.
When the Cape Argus approached the Social Development MEC Sharna Fernandez's spokesperson Joshua Chigome, to know if the social workers were despatched to the child as promised by the MEC at the time of the accident.
Chigome did not respond by the time of publication, however, he said he was waiting to receive reports from their social workers, and would respond as soon as he receive it.
Sassa spokesperson Shivani Wahab said that after Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu visited the four families last Wednesday, she pledged support to the families.
Wahab said in partnership with a community-based NGO, a grocery hamper was handed to each family.
"The minister has called for local government to ensure that preventative measures are put into place to avert a tragedy such as this in future."
Patience Pietersen, the City’s regional office's deputy director for disaster management, said they had also discovered that the four dead boys were Sassa beneficiaries, and knew how their families would be in need of such assistance.
This comes as the families and the community were preparing for the memorial services of the four boys at the Lusaka sports field this morning.
Cape Argus