Boy’s death gets BCM moving faster

BUFFALO City Metro’s new electricity infrastructure rollout may be welcomed by a city mired in ageing electrical facilities, but for a grieving King William’s Town family, the upgrades are a case of too little too late.

For estate agent Rachel Siwisa, 60, who lost her beloved six-year-old grandson Tenashe Luminathi Siwisa when he was electrocuted at a rusty, unlocked electricity boundary box, the trauma of his death continues to break her heart.

Dale College Primary Grade 1 pupil Tenashe died on February 10 after he and his cousins slipped out of his grandparent’s West Bank home to play.

He was electrocuted after trying to pull his slip-slops from an unlocked Zuurberg Street boundary electrical box, nicknamed by residents as “danger boxes”, and was declared dead at a doctor’s surgery shortly afterwards.

“My daughter cries about her son every day. We are all so traumatised by it. Even this morning I was crying about Tenashe before church,” said Rachel yesterday.

“He was such a sweet, lovely little boy who loved football, drawing and reading. His cousins were there when he was dying and he died in front of my husband and I. We need to get counselling.”

She said her husband, well-known attorney Vusumzi Siwisa, was taking legal action against BCM.

“They didn’t even come to us to apologise and they only fixed that box on April 25.”

BCM portfolio head of infrastructure services Ncedo Kumbaca, said boundary boxes were being upgraded across the metro, starting with King William’s Town.

“When the incident happened, it gave us a wake-up call . . . It was a sad situation and so we are trying to accelerate the rollout.

“The problem was the boundary boxes had fibreglass covers that were broken, but the new ones have metal covers and are locked.

“We are trying to replace all of them and are busy procuring more.”

He said he had met with King William’s Town community members and was informed that the town had many broken boundary boxes.

“So we are rolling them out in King first and then in the new financial year we will roll them out across the metro.”

He was unaware of the Siwisa’s legal action against BCM, saying it pertained to BCM’s legal department. —