The family of 58-year-old Ngitheni Busane Dange and her 16-year-old son, Siphesihle Thwala, from Waterloo in Verulam, who died during a structural collapse last week, are still struggling to come to terms with their untimely death as they prepare to lay the two to rest this Sunday in Ndwedwe.
The mother and son met their tragic end on Thursday night after a retaining wall collapsed, crushing their house below and killing them in their sleep. Sibongiseni Ngidi, a relative of the deceased, described their death as catastrophic as the two were well known in the community for their eagerness to assist anyone in need. Recalling the events of that fateful day, Ngidi said: “I got a call around 11pm that night, from one of her sons, saying something about the house. I was on my way back from Zwelisha and it was raining very heavily. He was crying over the phone and I couldn’t hear him properly. Then I heard him say the house fell and the two were trapped inside.” Due to the horrible weather conditions and the amount of rubble, Ngidi said there was absolutely nothing they could do to help. “There were bricks and broken pieces of the wall covering half the house. The roof itself had also caved in and the walls of the house also fell. The heavy rain also made it hard to see anything. All we could do was wait for the police who arrived within a few minutes. The ambulance took much longer to come. There was nothing we could do to save them.”
A neighbour, Phindile Sangweni, said she returned home from work at about 10pm that night. After turning on her television to relax she heard a loud bang. “At first I thought it was a car crash. I turned off the TV and heard someone scream.” Sangweni said they all rushed outside to assist as they thought someone had crashed into the wall and drove off. “When we saw the wall had collapsed onto the house we went to investigate. It was hard to get in due to the collapsed wall and the rain but we managed to get into the mother’s room and saw the wall on the bed where she was sleeping. We could not find her son and thought he might have been out with friends. The police broke the door leading to her son’s room. When we went in we saw the wall on his bed too and realised he’d also been fatally crushed.” Sangweni said it was a very sad time for the community as the two were very involved in the upliftment of the neighbourhood. She described the mother and son as loving and caring people. “They were always willing to help anyone in the community and they were very well known. It is devastating to know they passed in such a manner.”
The two bodies could not be removed immediately due to the structure’s instability. After a thorough investigation an excavator and a tractor loader backhoe (TLB) were used to remove large slabs of the broken wall. Once safe, members of the eThekwini Fire Department and officers from the SAPS Search and Rescue Unit entered the building to retrieve bodies. The eThekwini Mayor, Counsellor Mxolisi Kaunda, expressed deep sorrow at the passing of the two and said the accident happened after the city issued a notice to the owner to stop construction as there were no plans submitted for approval. He said the city has on several occasions appealed to residents to refrain from building any structure without being giving a green light. “This is a horrible accident that has just happened. I am still reeling in shock after it was brought to my attention. And it is very sad that their lives were taken by the wall that was not supposed to be constructed in the first place. This accident must send a clear message to all our residents that these by-laws are not aimed at frustrating them, but to prevent accidents of this nature.” Spokesperson for the South African Police Service, Colonel Thembeka Mbele, said: “It is alleged that on 17 September at 12am, a 58-year-old woman and 16-year-old man were sleeping at their place of residence at Waterloo in Verulam when a wall collapsed on them. The circumstances surrounding the incident are being investigated.” She said an inquest is under investigation at the SAPS in Verulam.
