Cape Town - A five-year-old boy was crushed to death when a huge steel gate fell on him in Cape Town.
The child was playing with friends at the Thusong Family Youth Centre in Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain, when tragedy struck.
Rayno Solomon suffered serious head and body injuries, and died on arrival at the Lentegeur day hospital.
Residents now blame the City of Cape Town for his death, saying they had complained about the broken gate before.
Rayno had gone to the facility with his 17-year-old brother while their parents were out shopping at the Town Centre mall.
A traumatised Oscar Muller, who works at the centre and witnessed the incident, said one moment the children were running around, laughing and playing, and the next, the gate smashed down on Rayno.
Muller said: “It happened right in front of me. I was busy working and I heard the gate fall, just in time to see a boy lying on his side.
“There was blood all over the gate, it had crushed Rayno, opening a big gash on his head.
“I prayed that God would save his life but he died on arrival in hospital.”
Muller said the gate was “an accident waiting to happen”.
“This gate was stolen and it was brought back, it’s been fitted here with faults,” he said.
Rayno’s heartbroken mother, Sharon Solomons, said she did not even know her children had been at the centre.
Solomons said: “We left him [Rayno] in the care of his 17-year-old brother, who told us he went out with friends.”
Mastoera Collop, who runs a bakery at the facility, blames the city for Rayno’s death.
Collop said: “This is a big gate, it takes seven men to carry it. I have complained to centre management about the gate, that it’s loose and sometimes falls. Now a child is dead because someone did not care.”
The fallen gate was put up again by the city.
Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said a post-mortem would be done to determine the cause of death. He said no foul play was suspected.
The mayoral committee member for Community Services and Special Projects, Belinda Walker, said she was “devastated” and has ordered an investigation into Rayno’s tragic death.
Walker added: “The gate in question has no visible faults and there are no records of faults being reported.”
Daily Voice