Police are waiting to hear if the driver of a speeding car that ploughed into three young boys, killing two and seriously injuring the third, will be charged with culpable homicide or murder.
The children, aged seven to 10, were run over in New Rest village in Qokolweni near Mthatha on Wednesday.
The boys were rushed to the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital where two, aged seven and nine, died.
Angry families want the driver jailed for life.
On Monday, police spokesperson Captain Dineo Koena confirmed two culpable homicide cases had been opened.
The dead boys were identified as Asakhe Pelu, 9, a Grade 3 pupil at Zibuzele Senior Primary in New Rest, and Kabongwe Sonkaphu, 7, in Grade 1 at an East London school.
Kungawo Majeke, 10, in Grade 4 at Zibuzele Senior Primary, was in the high care unit with serious injuries to his face and left leg.
Kungawo had arrived home for the holidays six days earlier.
“We are still angry at the way Asakhe died,” his grandfather, Makhuntwana Papashile, said.
“These were young boys. They did not deserve to die this way.
“The person who did this should be locked in jail for life and not released as he is a danger to people.”
Asakhe was staying with his grandmother, Nonkoliso Pelu, as his mother works in Cape Town.
Pelu said she had last spoken to Asakhe was a few hours earlier before going to town.
“I didn't know it would be the last time,” she said, her eyes welling with tears.
Asakhe had told her he had wanted to be a mayor when he grew up.
Papashile said they were poor and did not know how they were going to bury his grandson.
Recounting the incident, he said the three friends had been playing near Kabongwe’s home when the driver of an Opel Corsa hatchback overshot a bend on a dirt gravel road in the village about 300m away.
The car hit the boys, smashing them against a gate, before coming to rest at a water tank inside the yard.
Kabongwe’s grandmother, NomaIndiya Gladys Sonkaphu, said what made her grandson’s death even more painful was that they had just found out that he had passed his year-end exams.
“He was going to Grade 2.
“They must just lock this person up and throw away the key.
“These were young lives that were cut short.”
Kungawo’s grandparents, Mziwonke Majeke and Patricia Jilili, said they had not come to terms with what had happened.
“We are battling to eat and sleep. It all feels like a nightmare.”
The Jililis said their grandchild had gone into surgery on Friday and was still unable to speak or eat unaided.
“They were playing at home and not even on the road.
“He [the driver] must just rot in jail,” Majeke said.