Parents in Reiger Park are calling on the government to urgently attend to the poor maintenance of infrastructure to avoid more deaths among children in the Boksburg area.
The community is worried about the safety of their children after two siblings, Wyatt and Nasri Trollip, died three weeks ago.
The brothers, aged seven and nine, accessed a privately owned mine dump and fell into sinking sand. Their bodies were found the next day.
The dilapidated infrastructure in Reiger Park is evidence of the years of neglect and empty promises by politicians to improve the lives of residents.
Exposed electricity cables hanging from lamp poles, illegal dumping sites, flooded sewage pipes, and stolen scrap metal.
These are just some of the things that children in this community have become accustomed to and are taught from a young age how to navigate through the dangerous environment.
These parents live at the Reiger Park flats owned by the City of Ekurhuleni.
It’s adjacent to a mine dump where children swim in the contaminated rainwater with very few kid-friendly options.
“We are fed up, we’ve asked endlessly for them to close here,” said one parent.
Another added that: “They don’t care about us or how we are living here, they probably think we are living like pigs.”
The parks in this neighbourhood are also not maintained and these children are pleading with those in power to build safe play areas.
“Playgrounds – then it will get safer and a soccer field,” said one child.
“I’m not going to the dunes, we need playgrounds here,” added another child.
It’s at that mine dump where the two brothers drowned in sinking sand nearly a month ago.
The community has been appealing to the government and the mine to erect a secure fence around it to keep their children safe.
But while their pleas fall on deaf ears, parents will have to lean on prayers for their children to return home in one piece.
-EWN
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