Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato on Tuesday visited the scene along the N2 highway where four young boys from Nyanga died after falling into a sinkhole.
The bodies of Iva Kalikopu, 13, Nqabayethu Mlaza, 12, Axolile Mambangula,11, Azola Quweni, 13 were recovered by emergency crews on Monday night and in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after they fell into a sinkhole along the N2 highway at the Borcherds Quarry turn-off close to Nyanga.
The children had been playing when the sand on the side of the bridge suddenly caved in and they fell into the hole around 3pm.
It took emergency workers over three hours to retrieve the first body and the second was brought out about 30 minutes later.
The bodies of the third and fourth boy were recovered around 9pm and 2am, respectively.
Plato visited the scene where he first passed his condolences to the families and said the sand mining brought this tragedy.
He said that the children should have not been playing there in the first place.
“There are enough play parks in Nyanga, if you drive down this main road on the left side you will see one of the biggest sporting fields. Then when you pass Nyanga Police station, there is a massive play park, a brand new play park constructed by the City.”
Fire and rescue spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said they used almost every equipment they have to dig up the children.
“Between ourselves and Metro we used shoring boards, struts and jacks of various dimensions, hammers, nails spades, buckets, lighting scent dogs and tracking dogs. Sheer guts and determination to recover every one unaccounted for.”
Plato is expected to meet with the boys’ families on Wednesday.