Cousins buried under flood of mud in RDP
Ntombikayise Ngcobo is heartbroken. She recalls how her two nephews died metres away from her on Monday night at Richmond farm near Ntuzuma, northwest of Durban.
Cousins Siphesihle Maphumulo, 8, and Nqobani Khumalo, 6, were buried under a flood of mud inside a two-bedroom RDP house.
Ngcobo said the grade 1 Thobile Primary School boys lived with her in the house with three other relatives.
Nqobani’s mother was away in Inanda at the time of his death.
Ngcobo said she didn’t think that the rain, which had been falling since Friday, could result in such a tragedy.
Recounting her traumatic experience, she said her sister, who lived in a one-bedroom mud house next door, called at about 10pm to ask how they could sleep through the pouring rain.
“I went to her place to check on her. Just when I got inside their house I heard a loud thud which I later learnt was sand tumbling down the banks from around our house,” said Ngcobo. It was while she was checking on her sister that the mud came rushing into her own house, trapping the boys under the bed’s headboard and pinning them against the wall.
“They were very active children, and sometimes mischievous. Often I had to reprimand them when they came up with all sorts of things they would play in the yard with. They would often make a mess,” said Ngcobo sadly.
“We have never seen anything like this. We have had bad rains, but not to this extent,” she said.
Ngcobo said they were planning to bury the two children this week with help from the community. —