Modimole Children injured in mine fuse Explosion
Community Monitors Alerts/ Mmathapelo Thobejane/Sekhukhune/6August2016
On the 6/08/2016 we visited one of the family at Modimole where a child was involved in accident of explosives in July 2013.The accident happened early in the morning he was with his sister 15 years old then but now she is 18 , and the boy was then 8 years but now he is 13, and their next door the girl was 17 by then.
The boy told us that they where warming themselves because it was winter. They lit a fire before collecting the water and while they where sitting around the fire her 3-year-old sister came with a friend. They where gone to look for wires so that their brother will make them wire cars. Surprisingly the kids came with fuses from the mine. They thought that there is wire inside. They threw the wire into fire for the plastic to melt so that they can find the wire but the wires exploded in ground where they were sitting. The two girls where injured one on chest and the other one on the leg the boy also on chest, the parents heard the explosion, they ran to them, The kids where crying. They called the police and they took the kids to hospital and later they took them to the police station to make a statement. The police told them that they will make sure that the mine will pay for this and the following day the police took them again to the police station for questions. They told the parents that they will talk to them. Even now the parents are still waiting for the mine to come and talk. At the scene there was a ward Councilor who even now refuses to give the families photos of the accident as there where photos that was taken by the mine and police. The families opened the case against the mine but the case disappeared as they never been called for the court.
The boy told us he don’t even want to think about that day as it brings him bad dreams and the parents show us that after that day the kids where having nightmares and they never been given counseling and now the boy is not doing well in Grades they think is because of the accident because the same year he failed.
