MOSSEL BAY NEWS - "When I arrived at the hospital, he was already dead. I called him by his nickname, Vanono, and hoped he would wake up."
These were the words of Zizipho Gwangxube, the grieving mother of the one-year-old Likhwezilomso, who died after he was hit by a minibus taxi while playing with some children in a cul-de-sac in Sukula Street, KwaNonqaba, last Friday afternoon, 26 September.
Gwangxube said she had been at work at the time of the accident. Likhwezilomso had been visiting his aunt and grandmother in Sukula Street that afternoon before tragedy struck.
His aunt, Okuhle Julatai, said she had been inside the house at the time and little Likhwezilomso was playing with several other children outside in the yard.
She said her nephew had followed the other children across to the cul-de-sac when all of a sudden, the children were calling for her outside her door, saying Likhwezilomso had been hit by a vehicle.
"My mother and I ran out and saw him lying there. He wasn't moving," said Julatai.
The cul-de-sac in Sukula Street, KwaNonqaba, where Likhwezilomso was hit by a minibus. Photo: Chelsea Pieterse
She said her mother and the woman who had been driving the minibus rushed Likhwezilomso to the hospital. He was declared dead soon after arriving.
"He was very friendly. He was already attending crèche and loved to play with other children," said his mother.
His father, Phumlani Javu, said all his friends loved his son, and that Likhwezilomso wouldn't do anything without checking in with him first. "He also wanted to see what his dad thought," said Javu.
Likhwezilomso's parents say they miss their son, and the house is too quiet without him. The reality of losing him, especially at such a young age, hasn't fully sunk in.
Likhwezilomso's parents, Zizipho Gwangxube and Phumlani Javu. Photo: Chelsea Pieterse
They said the preparations for his funeral, which will be held in the Eastern Cape tomorrow, 4 October, is what they are focusing on at the moment.
"I don't know what I am going to feel when I am no longer in denial. I want justice to be served. I don't know yet what justice looks like for me; the courts must decide that, but I don't want that woman to walk free without paying for what she did. I want her to be punished for taking my child away from me," said Gwangxube.
"My son's name means 'star of tomorrow' in isiXhosa. She took that meaning away from him, from us."
The KwaNonqaba Police are investigating a case of culpable homicide and no arrests have yet been made.
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