A tragic accident occurred on 11 December in Klapmuts on Old Paarl Road or R101, opposite the local police station, when Nokulunga Jelwana (35) was hit by a truck.

“On arrival the [police] officer saw a truck parked away from the [Old Paarl] road and a pedestrian lying on the ground covered with a blanket,” Capt Jacobus Moos, station commander at Klapmuts Police Station, related. “The ambulance was already on the scene and declared the pedestrian dead.

“According to the driver, he was driving his truck on the Old Paarl Road in the direction of Cape Town, when he noticed a woman walking on the right side of the road and as he was drawing closer to her the woman was looking at the truck and suddenly jumped in front of it. He could feel it when the wheels went over her. He stopped, went to the back of the truck and saw the woman lying in the road, and thought she looked dead.”

According to Veronica Galant, vice-chair of the Klapmuts Community Policing Forum (CPF) the deceased, a Klapmuts resident, was seen walking around outside the Klapmuts Police Station.

“She then moved away from the police station, closer to the Old Paarl Road, which passes Klapmuts Police Station and walked in front of an on-coming truck.”

She said the truck was driving between 40 km to 60 km per hour.

According to Galant, the motive for the accident was suicide as Jelwana had allegedly been a victim of gender-based violence.

She died at the scene around 11:10 and a routine case of punishable homicide was opened against the truck driver.

“It is a very tragic accident,” Galant said. “She [Jalwena] felt she was alone and did not know what to do or whom to turn to. Klapmuts is once again in mourning.”

Several of Jalwena’s family and friends turned to Facebook, where they expressed their grief and sense of loss. She also left two children behind.

Paarl Post reached out to Jalwena’s family, but no comment was received by the time of publication.

Police investigations into the accident are still ongoing.