The community unites for Jaden
Reports state that the mother pulled the boy from the water and she and another bystander immediately started with CPR.
LYDENBURG – Never before has a community been as united through tragedy as this town has been this week. After the death of Jaden Landsberg, a grade five pupil at Laerskool Lydenburg, the community stood united and the members held a meeting with the Thaba Chweu Local Municipality (TCLM) on Thursday on account of the dire state in which the town was.
Jaden (10) and his friend were riding their bikes in Lombaard Street when he was apparently electrocuted by a live municipal wire. According to reports, the children rode their bicycles through a big pool of water near the end of the street. Sources indicate that Jaden was electrocuted on his bike and fell into the puddle. His friend tried to get him out of the water, but was also shocked.
Jaden’s friend rode to the boy’s house and told his mother, Hendrien, what had happened. She immediately drove to the scene. Reports state that the mother pulled the boy from the water and she and another bystander immediately started with CPR. Moments later Phoenix Security members arrived and Jaden was taken to the medical centre, where doctors also desperately tried to revive him. Jaden was unfortunately declared dead after almost an hour of battling to save his life.
Jaden was the eldest son of Mr Jaco and Ms Hendrien Landsberg. He has a younger sister, Chanlee (8). Phoenix Security, local hazmat operator, Mr Deon Broekman, and bystanders went back to the scene after TCLM electricians were called out to determine if the wire lying in the puddle was indeed live. The newspaper accompanied them. According to the municipal electricians, it was not, but a private electrician was called in for a second opinion.
He, however, determined that the wire was indeed a 230- volt cable and that it could have led to the child’s death. A service was held for Jaden yesterday at NG Kerk Suid where balloons were released. The Landsbergs did not want to talk to the paper about the tragedy. DA councillor, Mr Nicko Janse van Vuuren, called a meeting with TCLM several days prior to Jaden’s death, not only to discuss the state of the electricity in town, but the overall lack of preventative maintenance and service delivery.
“It is with great sadness and utter frustration that I am speaking today. It speaks of the utter negligence in terms of not just TCLM, but municipalities all over the country, that children can’t even go out and play in the streets any more. All I can say is that this informs us of the state of the municipality and how it is being managed,” Van Vuuren said.
“I am shocked that something like this can even happen. It shows that there is a total reactive way of governing and that something as bad as this has to happen before we do something about the situation. “We as the DA will wait for further investigations. I want to state that I sympathise with the family, deeply. I also have two young children. If need be, we will do whatever we have to do to make sure that something like this never happens again,” he stated.
Since the tragedy residents united and went out to take pictures of open electrical boxes, exposed wires and mini-substations with no locks on them, in order to take TCLM to task.
