By Botho Molosankwe
A seven-year-old child was hit by a car and killed because his driver did not want to drop him off at his school gate 350m away.
The schoolboy’s driver did not want to be stuck in traffic, metro police said on Wednesday.
Instead of dropping Mutsawashe Mukwakwami, right, at his school, Die Mossie, as agreed with his mother, the driver – known only as Lindiwe – dropped him next to Hoërskool Die Fakkel at about 7.30am.
Mutsa was the last child to be dropped off, according to the metro police.
Eyewitnesses said the little boy had got out of the taxi, walked in front of it and ran across the road to get to Die Mossie Primêre Skool.
He was knocked down by another taxi carrying special needs children and coming from another direction.
Mutsa landed 20m away from the point of impact and Lindiwe, who transports schoolchildren in the south of Joburg and drops them off at various schools in the area, rushed to where he lay and bundled him into her vehicle to take him to hospital.
Bystanders stopped her and emergency services officials who arrived later declared Mutsa dead.
Mutsa was to have turned eight on Monday and his mother had planned a party for him.
The eyewitnesses blamed Lindiwe for Mutsa’s death, saying she should have made sure it was safe for Mutsa to cross the street.
They also wondered why she had not helped him cross the street.
Mutsa’s mother, Heather, uncle Pascal and aunts, were inconsolable.
They had found the little boy’s body still in the car that had been taking him to school for two months.
Heather said she had been confused when she received a call while at work that her son had been killed next to Die Fakkel.
She had wondered what he was doing there since she paid the driver to drop him off at his school.
Seeing her only child dead, she could not stop crying.
“Traffic does not justify a child’s life. I pay for his transport every month to ensure that my child is safe.
“I’m busy at work keeping other children alive, resuscitating them, but my child too dies on the streets.
“If you pay someone to take care of your child, you expect them to do just that,” Heather, a nursing sister who was still in her uniform, said as she cried.
Mutsa had lately told her that he was not happy being transported by Lindiwe.
Heather’s neighbours had also told her that Lindiwe was not safety-conscious as they had observed her dropping and picking up the little boy in the street. There were also concerns that she always drove at a high speed.
“Lately, Mutsa did not want to travel with her any more. But I never got a chance to do anything about it and now I have lost him,” Heather said.
The spokeswoman for the Joburg metro police department, Edna Mamonyane, said Lindiwe had said she had not wanted to go all the way to Mutsa’s school as she had not wanted to be stuck in traffic.
The driver of the vehicle that knocked down Mutsa will be charged with culpable homicide.
Mamonyane said the driver might also be charged with negligence because she had not made sure the road was safe for Mutsa to cross.
“You cannot just drop off a child and not make sure he is safe.
“If she was concerned about his safety, she would have made sure,” said Mamonyane.
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