Mystery of how two boys drowned
MYSTERY still surrounds the circumstances that forced two Soweto boys to leave a communal swimming pool near their homes and head for a murky ditch in which they drowned.
Karabo Mabitiela, 7, and Neo Mosope, 11, of Dobsonville in Soweto were confirmed dead on Wednesday night by police.
The boys drowned in a ditch in Snake Park, almost 2km from their homes.
It is not clear if the boys, who were accompanied by four other boys, were swimming or fell into the ditch.
Police spokesman Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela said Karabo fell into the dam and Neo dived in to try to rescue him.
The boys were with four other friends who asked an adult who was in the area to alert the police.
Karabo ’ s distraught mother, Dineo Mabitiela, said she last saw her son on Wednesday morning.
She went in search of the boy when he didn’t pitch for lunch.
Karabo ’ s friends came to her home to alert her of the tragedy. She sent his brother Tebogo to the scene to investigate. He came back in tears two hours later.
“I asked him why he was crying. I asked him if my child was dead,” said Mabitiela.
When she arrived at the scene she was shocked to find scores of people, police and emergency workers.
Community members are now calling for the ditch to be closed. –