Boy (7) dies at aftercare

A seven-year-old boy died while under the supervision of staff at the Guardian Angel Creche’s afterschool care facility.

He died while playing outside, by the jungle-gym, on April 15.

According to the school, the jungle-gym fell on the child.

Wanga Tshisikhawe Justinho Negonde was rushed to Arwyp Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Wanga’s father, Mr Justice Muloyi, said he had arrived at the aftercare and hooted outside the gate as per usual, but his son did not come outside.

A woman, who works at the aftercare, went outside and told Mr Muloyi his son had been hurt while playing.

“I thought my son had a little scratch, as boys can sometimes play a little rough,” said Mr Muloyi.

Mr Muloyi accompanied the woman inside and was horrified to find his son lying on the ground with blood coming out of his mouth and nose.

He asked for assistance to get Wanga into his car and he rushed his son to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

An inquest docket was opened at the Kempton Park SAPS. The docket was then transferred to the Sebenza SAPS the next day. The Sebenza police have not yet received the postmortem results to determine the cause of death.

Both parents said Wanga was a sweet child who was strong at heart. November 29 would have seen Wanga celebrate his eighth birthday.

Ms Takalani Negondeni, Wanga’s mother, is still in shock. She wishes someone could wake her up from this nightmare.

“The loss of my son is causing me health problems and I cannot sleep anymore,” said Ms Negondeni.

Wanga’s death has since caused his parents to ask several questions into why their son died.

Mr Muloyi said he took his 16-year-old daughter to the aftercare for her to climb the jungle gym. He did this to establish a possible explanation of how his son could have had a whole jungle gym fall on him.

The jungle-gym appeared to be solid, as it did not move. He has since decided to leave the investigation up the police.

Ms Anna-Marie Wessels, who also owns a pre-school in the area, said the name of her pre-school also has the word “angel” in it and this should be a connotation for safety.

“I have been running my pre-school for 14 years and have had no such incidents. I have complained to various departments to investigate and close down this pre-school as it has been running the creche illegally for 10 years,” said Ms Wessels.

In addition, she said children’s lives are at stake and that is the major concern, as she is passionate about children and their safety.

The NEWS contacted the principal of the pre-school, Mr Petros Laka. He hung up five times, after giving a brief comment about the incident. He stated that he was not present and would not answer any follow-up questions put to him regarding the incident.

Wanga’s father said Mr Laka was present when Wanga was injured. According to Mr Muloyi, the principal splashed water over Wanga’s face. It is unclear why water was splashed over Wanga’s face.According to the Department of Social Development’s director of communications, Dr Sello Mokoena, the pre-school is not registered.

“The Department of Social Development has a responsibility to investigate the incident and communicate with the investigating officer at the SAPS to determine the nature of the death. The outcome of the investigation will determine any remedial action to be taken by the department,” said Dr Mokoena.

Doctor Mokeona said the department is saddened by the incident and investigations will be conducted in order for action to be taken.

Wanga’s burial was at the Lenasia Cemetery on Thursday, April 24.

@Modder_Journo