A ten year-old boy drowned at Empumelelweni
The police were informed of the incident at approximately 17:30 and they arrived on scene at approximately 19:30.
A ten year-old boy drowned at a contractor’s camp site at Empumelelweni.
According to sources it was reported that on the day of the incident, Tuesday, October 11 at about 17:30 a contractor’s water pump and roller broke down and they were moved to the contractors camp site.
As no water could be pumped, the sump was full of ground water. There was no plastic orange fence as it was stolen the evening before. No work could be done on the back filling except for a TLB still moving some material around. Only the TLB operator was on site between 15:30 and 16:00.
The TLB operator saw some children at the excavation area and told them to leave the area immediately. After leaving the site he informed the site agent of the children.
It was further said that at approximately 17:00 a ten year-old fell into the water filled sump and drowned. Some of the children informed the contractor at the site camp that a boy has drowned in the sump. The police were informed of the incident at approximately 17:30 and they arrived on scene at approximately 19:30.
Divers from Middelburg came and searched for the boy’s body. The boy’s body was recovered by 21:00 that evening.
A meeting was then held between the municipality, contractor and the consulting engineer to discuss the incident on Wednesday, October 12, the outcome of the meeting is not known.
It was also mentioned that from our source that the contractor contributed towards the boys funeral which was held on Sunday, October 16.
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