Child (11) dies after adults argue over “toolbox”.
A case of reckless and negligent driving was initially opened, but after the child died of injuries it was changed to culpable homicide.
An argument between two grown men over a toolbox ended in tragedy on Friday afternoon, February 9, when Louise Rakhothule (11), a pupil at Handhawer Primary School, died.
According to a resident of the Transvaliahof apartment complex in Merriman Avenue in Vereeniging’s city centre, where the altercation took place between 1pm and 2pm on Friday afternoon, Louis Madeley, a resident of one of the residential units, told Patrick “Pali Mokhooane, confronted a landlord of one of the units.
It was apparently about a toolbox from Madeley that Mokhooane allegedly took during a previous event and loaded into his bakkie.
Madeley, who admits to staying “illegally” in Mokhooane’s apartment for three days, allegedly blocked the entrance to the apartment complex with his silver Honda Civic so that Mokhooane could not leave the apartment complex and entered the complex over the “stolen ‘”toolbox confronted.
According to Madeley, he stood next to Mokhooane’s white Toyota bakkie while Mokhooane was in the feed and spoke to him through the window of the vehicle.
“I called the police and gave him (Mokhooane) the phone so he could explain to them about my stolen toolbox,” Madeley explained to Vaalweekblad.
According to eyewitnesses, Mokhooane pulled away with his Toyota bakkie with a bull bar in front and rammed Madeley’s Honda Civic – which at that stage was blocking the entrance to the complex.
Madeley emphasized that the bakkie only hit the smaller vehicle hard once.
The girl was apparently at the gate when she was pinned against the palisade fence by Madeley’s vehicle (which was rammed by Mokhooane’s bakkie).
“I heard people who were near the gate shouting. At first I thought my vehicle had caught fire (after being bumped hard). Later I found out that the child was pinned between the vehicle and the fence,” says Madeley.
According to Madeley, he then tried to start his vehicle to pull it away in reverse. The vehicle would not start and Madeley consequently had to push the vehicle away to free the child.
Vaalweekblad learns that the child suffered injuries to her pelvis and apparently her uterus ruptured. She was taken to a hospital in Johannesburg for treatment.
On Tuesday, Vaalweekblad received the sad news that she had died from her injuries.
Capt. Fikile Funda, a spokesperson for the police in Vereeniging, confirmed that a case of reckless and negligent driving was initially opened. After the girl died, it was changed to a case of culpable homicide.
The case is being investigated by the police.
