Family distraught as burnt boy succumbs to injuries
After two months of battling for his life in hospital, 17-year-old Anam Sishuba, fondly known as ‘Wawa’, who was set on fire in Qoqodala, allegedly by Ilinge school teacher, Bandile Mkutswana, in September, gave his last breath last Tuesday.
The Sishuba family is even more distraught with the uncertainty of whether the case will be dismissed or allowed to continue for justice to be served for the Lavelilanga High School grade 9 pupil.
Anam suffered third-degree burns after he was set alight on the eve of the weekend of September 9 in his home village in Nkonkobe of Qoqodala, near Komani.
Mkutswana is set to appear before the Cacadu magistrate’s court for bail application today this Friday.
His mother, Nomzi Sishuba, who is struggling to cope with the loss of her son said on the day that Anam passed away at the hospital, she had received the news that he hadn’t been speaking.
“Whenever I entered, he would be the first person to ask me how I was doing but on Tuesday he was not able to. “I called him twice.
“He looked and me and never responded.
“I realised that there was nothing I could do.
“I later received a phone call at 11pm informing me about his death,” she said.
With Anam’s death, Sishuba is uneasy about what was to become of the court case going forward.
”I fear that the case could come to an end. In our court attendance, we notice that Mkutswana was anxious to get bail.
“He wants the case to come to an end.
“I ask the government to support me for Mkutswana to remain in jail,” she said.
“My child was torched while he was coming back from one of the villages.
“I went to bed not knowing that my child had been burnt.
“I was informed at 7 the next morning that I needed to go to Frontier Hospital.”
Upon arriving at the hospital, she was shocked by Anam’s condition.
“When I arrived at the hospital, I saw that my son was badly burnt, and I began to cry out in anguish.
“He also began to cry”
Khula Community Development Project director Patrons Majola visited the family and said such cases were often dismissed if there was no one to testify in court.
“However, we want to request that the case not be dismissed, as the child had already told the police what happened to him.
“The deceased was a victim, and the case shouldn’t die with him,” Majola said.
In addition, the family shared with Majola that they needed assistance from the local business community to help cover the funeral expenses.
Nkonkobe resident Yusana Hayiya said the community members had come together to discuss the serious ramifications of this tragedy.
“We asked ourselves: if this had happened to our own child, how would we feel?
“We wrote to the magistrate to inform him that we did not want Bandile to be part of our community,” Hayiya said, adding that there had been previous accusations against Bandile but that the community had remained silent and not gone to the authorities.
“We have never witnessed someone being burned alive.
“Anam’s life was cut short,” Hayiya said.
“He had to stop attending school and his condition was critical.
“If the courts release Mkutswana they must also find a place for him because the community may end up taking the law into its hands.”
According to department of education spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima, Mkwetsana has been discharged from his duties by the department.
A press statement from the department announced that the funeral will take place on December 9.
The department also stated it would support the family during this difficult time.
Education MEC Fundile Gade offered his heartfelt condolences to the Sishuba family, saying: “May the family find solace in God during this trying time of their lives.”