Night in aloe after 80m fall
2003-03-11 08:21
Pietermaritzburg - A 12-year-old boy, who had been chased by a security guard for pestering tourists, fell 80m at Howick Falls in KwaZulu-Natal and had to spend the night in an aloe before being rescued.
Wandile Motlatsi, 12, was seriously injured when he and a friend, Thabani Ndlovu, 14, ran away from the guard behind a wall and onto a pathway to the falls.
Thabani said he saw Wandile slip and fall but expected him to come up. In the morning when Wandile was still missing he told the guard.
He and some of his friends went to look for Wandile and found him stuck in an aloe.
Netcare 911 paramedic Valerie Hurlbatt said Wandile suffered spinal and head injuries and internal bleeding but is in a stable condition in Grey's Hospital.
Security guard Sibusiso Ndlovu, who works for the Howick Tourism Association, said the children are a nuisance.
On Sunday, Thabani and Wandile were sitting on a bench pestering some tourists. "I spoke to them and told them to leave the area but they didn't, so I chased them. They ran down the pathway [as usual] and I walked away."
Ndlovu said they often flee down the path so he didn't check before he went home at 16:00, 15 minutes after chasing the boys.
Ndlovu said the street children cause a lot of problems and steal from tourists. This was confirmed by a shopowner.
"Some of the tourists get out of the buses and then can't wait to get back in because of these children," he said.
"Last year and the beginning of this year, shopowners got together and bought these children school uniforms so that they could get back to school.
"Some of them went for a few days. Others didn't even go."
Tourism association chairperson Bryan Frayne said the security guard's job is to chase the children away as they are aggressive and sniff glue. "They sometimes attack the tourists and demand money."
Wandile's mother, Nokuzola Motlatsi, who lives in a nearby informal settlement, said he is a "very naughty child" who doesn't want to go to school. He comes home sometimes but usually sleeps on the street.
The security guard has not been charged and police are investigating.