Family blame Sol for drowning
FAMILY members of the fiveyear-old boy who drowned at the Riverton villas pool on New Year’s Day intend on leaving his body “in a bag” at the Mittah Seperepere Convention Centre to display to President Cyril Ramaphosa the “insensitivity” of the Sol Plaatje Municipality after it apparently flatly refused to contribute towards his burial.
The bereaved family stated that the municipality should be held accountable for his death and are considering taking legal action.
A relative stated that the municipality was negligent as there were no warning signs at the pool.
“The swimming pool was full of children, although there were no lifeguards on duty at the time. We were day visitors to the resort and nobody prevented us from entering the villas. There were many members of the public making use of the pool on that day. The main pool at Riverton was overcrowded and we decided to swim at the villas instead. The municipality should have ensured that there were safety precautions in place to prevent the loss of life,” the relative said yesterday.
He explained that the deceased, Katlego Mothaletedi, was swimming with his 11-year-old and sevenyear-old brothers in the pool.
“They were under the supervision of their mother. Katlego told his mother that he was hungry and she quickly went to make him a wors roll. She asked the other parents to watch the children while she went to prepare her son some food.
“She also told Katlego not to venture into the deep end of the pool and requested his brothers to keep an eye on him. She only turned her back for a minute when she heard the children screaming for help.”
He added that another child had apparently jumped into the pool and landed on top of Katlego.
“His brother had to fish him out of the pool at around 5.30pm. Both of his brothers as well as the children who witnessed the event are still traumatised. We tried to resuscitate Katlego and he did gasp for air while we administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation but the ambulance had taken a detour and arrived around 20 minutes after he was rescued from the pool. By that time he had died in our arms.”
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He added that the Speaker’s Office had advised that it was only able to contribute R1 500 towards a pauper’s burial as it was short of funds.
“We also approached the pool manager and the Mayor’s Office. We were told that the mayor was unavailable. No one is interested in assisting us.
“We do not have a funeral policy because he is so young. He would have started Grade R this year. His mother is having trouble accepting his death. We are struggling to arrange a decent funeral as it was not planned for. We negotiated with a funeral parlour to store his body in the mortuary until we are able to raise enough funds for the burial. If the municipality fails to assist us, we will carry his body in a bag and leave it at the Mittah Seperepere Convention Centre when President Cyril Ramaphosa comes to Kimberley.”
He added that the ward councillor had pleaded with the mayor’s personal assistant to help the grieving family, as it was on the eve of the ANC 108th anniversary celebrations.
“The phone was dropped in the ward councillor’s ear. The ward councillor arranged a meeting to take place with the family and the mayor. We will see what promises they come up with.” He indicated that the family wished to be compensated for the untimely death as well as for the burial costs.
“We do not have any specific amount in mind. All we want is for the municipality to be held accountable and to put the necessary precautions in place to prevent further drownings.”
The Mayor’s Office acknowledged receipt of a media enquiry but did not respond by the time of going to press.
At the time of the incident, the Sol Plaatje Municipality indicated that it was conducting an investigation into the drowning of the five-year-old boy.
Municipal spokesperson Thoko Riet had indicated that the Riverton villas were out of bounds to the public and were only allocated to visitors who had booked accommodation at the chalets and villas.
She stated that the Riverton and Langley resorts were filled to capacity on New Year’s Day and that due to the high volume of visitors, six lifeguards were on duty at the main pool, supertube water slide and baby pool.