Tragic end for three friends

Three children who drowned while playing in an unused quarry outside Queenstown on Tuesday afternoon died while desperately trying to save one another.

Two of them – brothers Anele Mgijima, 9, and Zandi Mgijima, 12 – were pulled from their watery grave still holding hands.

Some said they had seen the surviving boy running “as if being chased by a ghost” to report the incident.

Ezibeleni police station commander Lieutenant-Colonel Sandla Ginya said the incident had evoked emotions of anger from residents who had been fighting with officials at the Lukhanji municipality to have the quarry cordoned off.

Lukhanji spokesman Fundile Feketshana said the municipality was only informed about the tragedy at 7pm and emergency officials had been dispatched. He said the quarry was constructed in 1974 when the township was being built and had been unused since.

He said mayor Nozibele Makhanda and her executive team had visited the scene on Tuesday night. The mayor again visited the families yesterday  with social workers where she prayed for the bereaved.

“A team of environmental and engineering experts will be assembled to put safety measures around the quarry,” Feketshana said. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za