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Rain-soaked wall collapses on child
27/09/2006 11:41 - (SA)
Cape Town - A 12-year-old girl, Ntombizethu Nqala, has died in the Transkei after a rain-soaked wall collapsed on her, a councillor on the Nyandeni local municipality said on Wednesday.
The councillor, Jamangile Mabuya, said the accident happened at Corana village around 21:00 on Tuesday.
"It was raining very heavily yesterday," he said. "Because it's built of mud bricks the house fell, and the wall fell into the inside... covering the child. The only part visible was the legs.
"The mother also was covered in bricks. She screamed until the neighbours came. When the neighbours removed the bricks the child was dead."
Mabuya, who was touring the area to do an assessment of rain damage, said at another home he visited, a woman had narrowly escaped being hit by a falling wall.
He said the municipality - which operates from the town of Libode - was compiling a list of the damage before deciding on any relief measures.
Mabuya said brick-makers in the area had been hit hard, as the rain had damaged stocks of unbaked bricks.
On Tuesday heavy rainfall wrought havoc in various parts of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, causing accidents, washing away roads and threatening the homes of shack dwellers.
About 30 accidents occurred in the Eastern Cape alone due to wet and misty conditions. Snowfalls resulted in the closure of the Rhodes-Mount Fletcher road and the Matatiele-Lesotho road through the Ongeluksnek border gate.
- SAPA
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