Villagers beg for bridge before more kids killed
THEY ran across the dry riverbed carefree, laughing and happy, while a large truck collected river sand.
There were a few puddles and some mud – the only evidence that it had rained the night before.
Most of the children running across to get home from school were about seven or eight years old, and this is part of their daily routine.
For many children in Sekgopo village, Limpopo, crossing this large, nameless riverbed is their only means of getting to their school on the other side.
“If it rains, either they don’t go or we walk them all the way around on the cement road,” said a parent who identified herself only as Elizabeth.
“But that’s not safe either because there are a lot of trucks and they splash you with water or the wind they create when they drive past can knock you down. It’s also a far walk and takes long.”
Another parent, Mokgadi Maake, said: “We are very scared when it rains because that riverbed fills up quickly, the water flow becomes strong and if the children cross it, they will be washed away.”
When it rains and the riverbed fills up, parents sometimes wade into the water before their children to check on the current.
“If the current isn’t strong, we will put the child on our back and cross to get them to school,” Maake said. “If it’s too strong, we will either take them the long way around or let them stay home.
“This disrupts their education because when we take them on the cement road they are late for school, and if they stay home it’s not good for them.”
After school, if it’s still raining and the river is flowing, the school phones the parents to fetch their children.
“We will do the same thing: check the current, cross if it’s safe; and if it’s not, we take them around,” she said.
Elizabeth said parents warned their children about the dangers “but they are little and mischievous; they don’t always listen to their parents”.
There have been several close incidents where children were saved from drowning.
Last month, a group of 12-year-olds were crossing the river when it began to rain heavily and the riverbed filled up quickly.
“There was an older woman who told them to go home before the rain started but they didn’t listen,” parent Steve Ratlhapane said.
“Some of the boys managed to get out but one was swept away and was holding on to a rock near the concrete road,” he said. “Luckily someone near the water saw him and was able to pull him out.
“At the same time, one of the other boys who ran to the concrete road to get help was pushed over by the wind of a passing truck and hit by a taxi. This all could have been avoided if there was a bridge.”
Jonas Mahale, whose children are adults, said his
Luckily someone saw him and pulled him out
deepest fear was that his children would get washed away when they were younger.
“As a parent and as a community member, we need a pedestrian bridge so that the children and the parents can cross safely, because it’s not only the children who have to get to school. There are places where we have to go that are llso across the river and it’s too far to go all the way around,” he said.
“There are places where I need to get on the other side and I have to cross it, and it can push you down. It has happened before.”
Mahale said that a few years back, a child was killed after trying to cross the swollen river.
The community is appealing to the government to help them build a bridge across the ravine so that their children’s lives will no longer be in danger.
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