A seven-year-old girl died after firewood fell on her at Nobuhle Hostel in 6th Avenue on Tuesday.
Reitumetse Nthahli was on her way home with her four friends after fetching a neighbour’s child from daycare when they came across the firewood and started playing next to it, not knowing that it would soon take her life.
Read: JUST IN: Child dies at Nobuhle Hostel
Mlungisi Jali, who owns a tuck shop at the hostel, told Alex News that he was called to the scene soon after the ordeal had happened.
“When I got there, I found her lying between the wood with blood coming from her ears, nose and mouth,” he said.
Jali then rushed the little girl to a nearby clinic where she was declared dead on arrival.
“On the way to the clinic, she was having trouble breathing as if the blood coming from her nose and mouth was choking her.”
Jali said that little Reitumetse took her final breath just as a nurse was about to examine her.
Reitumetse’s mother, Matshepo, said her daughter’s passing broke her heart.
“She was a loving child who enjoyed playing outside with other children,” she said.
She explained that Reitumetse went to the hostel every day to fetch her neighbour’s child from daycare.
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She added that it was not the first time that a child was injured by the wood. “There were two incidents before this, but unfortunately Reitumetse was not lucky enough to come out of this alive.”
The wood is apparently owned by a man known only as Sibiya who uses it to cook food and he also sells it to people who pass by.
A resident of the hostel, Phiwokuhle Ngubane, said the wood needs to be removed from the hostel before more children die.
“We have tried to speak to him [Sibiya] to remove the wood, but he wouldn’t. He just dismisses us, uninterested,” she said.
Sibiya could not be reached and it is unclear whether he is aware of the incident or not.
Reitumetse went to Gordon Primary School where she was in Grade 1.
Her funeral will be held in Lesotho on a date that is still undecided.
