#ICYMI: Drowned Zenzeleni schoolboy not attacked by snake

Tragedy has struck Alex yet again.

This after Thulani Moloyi (12), who was in Grade 5 at Zenzeleni Primary School, drowned in the Jukskei River after school on 25 October. The incident occurred in the company of two school friends he was swimming with, while three others watched from the river bank.

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Police spokesperson Captain Allie Kodisang, who went to the scene between the bridge on Alfred Nzo Avenue and the footbridge downstream, said police divers found little Thulani’s body underwater. He was certified dead by the forensic unit, which took his body to a government mortuary.

Kodisang added that the deceased’s friends and witnesses said the boys called for help after he didn’t emerge from under the water. It wasn’t stated if they all knew how to swim.

The boys’ parents were found and taken to the scene to verify their children’s identities. They were also advised of the trauma counselling available at the Victim Empowerment Unit at the police station.

The entire school, particularly his classmates, were said to have been in a sombre mood the next morning when news of his death was announced by the principal.

The postmortem results will determine the cause of death.

Thulani’s mother, Primrose, said the news of her son’s death came as a shock. She said that at about 3pm, a paramedic and one of Thulani’s friends arrived at her house carrying Thulani’s schoolbag.

Read: Drowning is preventable

“I asked the little boy where Thulani was and that was when the paramedic told me that Thulani had drowned but [out of confusion] I thought he had survived and was being treated on the scene,” the emotional mother said.

Primrose said she eventually grasped that Thulani had been declared dead after being taken out of the river.

She said she could still not believe that her son had died. Thulani will be buried in his mother’s homeland, Zimbabwe, on a date yet to be set.

Details: Alex Police Station 011 321 7621.