UPDATE: Mother speaks for first time after son’s (10) death at north water park
"It’s exactly 11 months since his death today.”
Rekord recently spoke to the mother of a 10-year-old boy who tragically died in an accident at a popular water park in the north of Pretoria last year.
It was the first time she spoke to Rekord since the accident happened.
“It’s exactly 11 months since his death today,” said Elna du Toit. “However, it feels like it all happened yesterday.”
“The pain is still so raw.”
Her son, Aiden, died on 29 November 2017 when he bumped his head while playing at the ZambiBush Resort in Sinoville.
“Aiden never came to me after he bumped his head the first time,” she corrected a previous article by Rekord.
ALSO READ: UPDATE: Death of a 10-year-old Pretoria boy investigated
Previously, sources told Rekord that Aiden ran crying to his mother after he first bumped his head.
“I wish he did come to me after he first bumped his head,” said an emotional Du Toit.
“I would never have allowed him to go down the water slide again.”
Du Toit was at the water park with friends and their children on the day of Aiden’s accident.
“After he hurt himself on one of the water slides, which went through a tunnel, one of his friends convinced him to go down it again.”
She said her son bumped his head at the same spot for a second time then.
“That was when he first ran to me,” said Du Toit.
“He was holding his head and yelling: ‘My head! My head!’ His friends told me what had happened and we called ZambiBush staff to help us.”
ALSO READ: UPDATE: SOUND CLIP: North resort responds to tragedy
Du Toit said the staff members who helped them were “very young” and “inexperienced”.
“They lifted Aiden up by his arms and put him onto a stretcher and then onto a picnic table.”
Aiden has lost consciousness in the meantime.
He was declared dead at the scene.
The Du Toit family has laid criminal charges against the ZambiBush owners.
“We want to warn other parents about how dangerous the place is,” said Du Toit.
A senior staff member at the water park – who wished to remain anonymous – previously told Rekord that “strict rules” were enforced at the resort.
ALSO READ: Boy (7) drowns at north resort
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