The City of Cape Town (COCT) has once again come under fire after a 2-year-old boy fell into a drain outside of his house in Greenpoint, Khayelitsha on Sunday, August 29. According to reports, Imthande Swaartbooi’s lifeless body was discovered by his mom in a COCT drain that has been open for a while now.
A 2 year old, fell in a drain & has died. This happened a few hours ago in Green Point, Khayelitsha. This drain has been like this for a long time. The family say they recently reported it to @CityofCT employees. This is apparently not the first time a child fell in this drain pic.twitter.com/UrxtAEdNDg
— Axolile Notywala (@Xila_Notywala) August 29, 2021
The boy’s uncle, Nkosikhona Swaartbooi said in a Facebook post that Imthande was not the first child to drown in that drain as a result of the COCT’s negligence in failing to fix broken, blocked, and overflowing drains in poor working-class communities.
Swaartbooi explained that despite the numerous attempts by the residents of Greenpoint, asking the municipal trucks to fix and cover this drain, the COCT ignore those requests. However, after hearing about the recent tragedy, the COCT immediately sent out its Water and Sanitation staff to fix the broken drain.
“Xanthea Limberg Mayco member for Water Sanitation called to inform that she’ll be briefing Mayor Dan Plato about this situation. How many children must die in this very undignified way in order for the COCT to realise its constitutional obligation to provide basic services to poor and working-class communities,” Swaartbooi said.
The drain has now been closed. It took between 2-4 hours for it to be closed yesterday, only after the tragic death of the 2-year old. The loss of life of a Black child could have been prevented had the City really cared. The Mayor visited the family today to pay his respects pic.twitter.com/eG9EWbgW3C
— Axolile Notywala (@Xila_Notywala) August 30, 2021
In the meantime, police have also opened an inquest docket into the child’s death as well as the circumstances surrounding the incident which took place on Sunday, IOL reports.
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Picture: Twitter/ @Xila_Notywala