Devastated families of Delft are demanding justice for their children after they were allegedly hit by a speeding police van in Wingnut Street near the Covid informal settlement on Saturday 4 October.
According to witness reports from the community, the speeding police van exited the road when it hit a shack and three children. One child died on the scene, while the other two were seriously injured and transported to hospital for medical treatment.
Thantaswa Ndalasi, grandmother of the 11-year-old Namhla Nondala who died when she was struck by the vehicle, is traumatised by the incident which occurred around 17:30. “I was at my cousin’s house a few streets away from my house. I saw Namhla’s older sister running toward the house. She was crying and said Namhla was hit by a car,” the distraught granny recalled.
“I didn’t ask where [it happened]. I immediately ran to my house, thinking that the incident occurred there, but when I arrived I saw no-one. I went outside again and I saw a group of people surrounding a police van down the street and I ran to the scene.”
On her arrival, Ndalasi saw her granddaughter’s lifeless body in the road. She immediately knelt over her granddaughter’s body and sobbed over it. “Even now, I’m not okay. Namhla was an active child, but she was very respectful,” Ndalasi said.
Sizeka Mtshisile, a parent of one of the injured children, said all they want is justice for their children. She claimed that the police officers involved in the accident were under the influence of alcohol. “My daughter injured her leg. I’m not sure if it is fractured or not. My husband is currently at the hospital with her,” the anxious mother said, adding that scans will determine the extent of her daughter’s injuries.
Mtshisile said her daughter recalled the police van approaching them at high speed. “My daughter told me that they were walking on the pavement when they were hit by the police van. It apparently came out of the road when it hit a nearby shack before hitting them. We have no reason not to believe her.”
She further called on government to assist Namla’s family with her burial and financially support the families of the two injured children.
Community leader Tyelovuyo Mjayezi emphasised that they are not happy with the way the police handled the scene, claiming Namhla’s body lay in the street uncovered for more than an hour, before a resident covered it with a blanket. “The officers took four hours before they cordoned off the scene. Instead of doing their jobs, they were bashing the community,” Mjayezi alleged.
“As community frustrations mounted, they ended up setting the police van alight. This led to the officers retaliating, and shooting at the crowd with live ammunition.”
Tygerburger reached out to the Western Cape police’s media office for comment on the incident, but spokesperson Capt. FC van Wyk declined to comment, referring the publication to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).
However, efforts trying to get comment from Ipid were fruitless at the time of publication.
