Ten years ago, a couple lost their four-year-old son. Tragically they lost another son of the same age in a similar accident.
|||Cape Town - Ten years ago, the Mila couple lost lost their four-year-old son in a car accident. This week, tragedy struck again when they lost another son of the same age in a similar accident.
On Wednesday, Sizwe Mila and his wife, Mandisa Mila, sitting in their Ilitha Park home in Khayelitsha, described the events that led up to the accident in which little Iviwe died.
“I took my wife and daughter to their church in the morning and my son, who normally goes with them, said he wanted to stay home and go with me to my church instead,” Sizwe Mila said.
While Mila was getting ready, Iviwe asked for money to buy sweets at the shop.
“But I said no because I know that road where the shop is is dangerous. I said we can get sweets on the way to church. Then he asked if he could go and play outside with his friends while he waited for me and I said ‘Yes’.”
A few minutes later, Mila heard screeching tyres and a loud bang.
“Then people started screaming and I went to look, only to find that it was my son who had been knocked over by the car.”
As he told the story, Mila’s wife, Mandisa, sat quietly next to him trying to hold back her tears.
Neighbours told Mila that Iviwe had been running from a nearby spaza shop with his friends. The others had made it safely across the street.
“People treat this road like it’s a freeway. They drive too fast, especially when coming around the bend,” Mila said.
He said the accident brought back memories of the death of their older son, Ntlahla, who was run over when the family were living in Luzuko Park, Gugulethu, in May 2003.
“It is like the same tragedy is happening to us all over again,” said Mila.
When the Cape Argus went to the street where the recent incident happened, residents had blocked part of the road with debris, stones and sand, reducing the two lanes to one.
“They should put speed humps on this road in order for us to avoid this happening again to another child,” Mila said.
“Prevention is better than cure, and I feel this should have happened right at the beginning when the road was built.”
Mila said their son would be buried on Saturday.
neo.maditla@inl.co.za
Cape Argus