Mdantsane toddler drowns in stream

A Toddler drowned in an overflowing stream in Mdantsane at the weekend.New Era Preschool pupil Inam Gcina Foyi, 3, fell and drowned in a stream near her NU2 informal settlement home on Saturday morning while trying to cross with her eight-year old sister and two cousins aged 10 and five years.

TRAGIC END: A stream in Mdantsane’s NU2 which was overflowing over the weekend, when a three-year-old drowned. Picture: SIBONGILE NGALWA

Her lifeless body was discovered by police divers on Sunday morning, more than 200m from where she had slipped and fallen in.

Mdantsane police spokesman Captain Nkosikho Mzuku said a frantic search by police divers was called off on Saturday after there were no traces of the little girl.

“She was discovered the following day after we had summoned divers and all police stakeholders who assist in situations like this.

Inam Gcina Foyi

“We were told that she fell to the stream, which is not that deep, but too deep for a kid her age, while playing with her siblings,” Mzuku said.

Inam’s mother, Nomthandazo Foyi, told the Daily Dispatch that she left her two children and their two cousins in her shack when she left for work on Saturday afternoon.

“It was raining heavily on the day and I told them that they should remain indoors and not go anywhere near the overflowing stream.

“Someone was supposed to have come and fetched them to visit my mother’s house nearby.

“I was at work for just a few hours when I received the devastating call about the drowning of my child,” the distraught mother said with tears streaming down her face.

“I blame myself for her death. If I was not this poor and struggling in this life, I would not be staying in the shacks where it is too dangerous to be raising children.”

Nomthandazo Foyi

Foyi said she was “shattered and devastated” by the loss of her last born child.

Family members said both she and her eight-year-old daughter, who had witnessed the incident, were in need of “some serious counselling”.

Foyi’s equally distraught aunt, Nompumelelo Chikunya, said on realising that Inam was drowning, the three children asked passersby for help.

“The community and police did everything they could on Saturday but with no luck,” she said.

Chikunya said Foyi was “not coping, very disturbed, in pain and needed some serious psychological help.

“She has been crying a lot while her older daughter has hardly slept peacefully since the incident.

“She even dreams and calls out her younger sister’s name at night,” Chikunya said.

Buffalo City Metro spokesman Samkelo Ngwenya yesterday said there had not been reports of any other major disruptions or incidents as a result of the heavy rain over the weekend.

DispatchLIVE/Asanda Nini

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