By Anita Dangazele
- Four children from Lady Frere drowned in a river while escaping the heat as their families attended a traditional celebration.
- Villagers say a lack of facilities, like a swimming pool, may have prevented the tragedy.
A drowning tragedy struck Rwantsana Village, in Lady Frere, where four young children died while swimming in a river last Sunday.
The children had gone to the river to cool off while their parents attended a traditional Xhosa homecoming, umgidi, celebration.
Activist, Petros Majola, confirmed that three of the children—Imibongo Ncinane, 6, Olungaka Ncinane, 5, and Luhle Ncinane, 9—were from the same family, while the fourth, Luwezo Shwadi, belonged to another family.
An unnamed fifth child accompanied them but ran back to the village when the others started drowning.
“The child allegedly stayed silent out of fear of punishment because swimming in the river is forbidden for children,” Majola said.
It was only after the families began searching for the missing children that the truth came out.
Community members discovered the children’s clothes on the riverbank and two of the bodies downstream.
“We couldn’t find the other two that night and had to wait for divers to retrieve them the next morning,” said a villager.
Locals believe the tragedy could have been avoided if the village had a swimming pool.
Pictured above: The funeral of the four Rwantsana village children who drowned on Sunday, 29 December.
Source: Supplied
