Where this festive season should have been filled with laughter and joy, a local family will have one less smile around. This after the eight-year-old Remoneilwe Rankoa drowned in an old mine waste dump recently.

Speaking to the News, Remoneilwe’s grief-stricken grandfather, Godfrey Papi, explained what happened.

He said on Tuesday, November 23, Remoneilwe and two of his friends went to play in an open field. There used to be a mine in the area and the little boy fell into an old mine waste dump that hadn’t been closed.

It was just left like that,” he said.

His friends came to call his family but when his mother Mokghotso Rankoa arrived, little Remoneilwe was already gone.

Godfrey said this was the first time the children played in the open field and there was no fencing or any other measures to keep the children from getting close to the dump.

Remoneilwe who was a Grade 2 learner at Tsholotsega Primary School would have turned nine in January 2022. He was the eldest of three children and his mother described him as a shy, quiet and introverted child with his own way of doing things.

The family explained that there were not many of these mine waste dumps in the area, but they want to create awareness so that other people and children would know to be very careful.

On Thursday, December 2 the family laid little Remoneilwe to rest.

The News reached out to the Kagiso Police to confirm that an inquest into the case had been opened. No feedback had been received at the time of publishing this article but they did say they would respond as soon as possible.