A heartbroken mother from Sebokeng near Vereeniging wants justice to prevail after the horrific death of her four-year-old son on Monday afternoon.

It is said that Amohelang Morake was walking next to his mother Lerato when a bus driver made a U-turn on the corner of St Patrick and Sebe streets. The bus toppled over, trapping the toddler’s upper body inside the wheel arch and his lower half between the bus and steel barriers next to the road.

When the police arrived, they found the boy was trapped and dozens of bystanders were looking on helplessly.

Speaking to Sedibeng Ster, Lerato shared shocking details of how her son was killed.

“We were coming from Amohelang’s paternal home in Zone 3, going to Temalebone. I was holding my son and carrying my daughter on my back when we saw the bus driving close to us. We tried to run from it, [but] Amohelang was dragged and all I could hear was him screaming,” she says.

“I tried to yell to the driver to stop but everything happened so quickly. I watched my son getting swallowed by the tyre’s gap and getting pressed into the steel barriers. I couldn’t pull him out and he was quiet. I then knew he had passed on,” she adds.

Lerato says the driver remained seated in the bus and did not climb out.

“I ran to his door and told him to come out and look what he had done. He held his hands to his head and said to me ‘it was a mere accident’ and that he is sorry,” she explains.

The visibly devastated mother adds: “I am broken. I lost my little boy and the driver didn’t show remorse after the incident. He didn’t even bother to go look. I am hoping for justice [to be served] and that the driver is locked away for killing Amo.”

Police spokesperson Captain Fikile Funda says a case of culpable homicide has been opened and that the bus driver was arrested.