Publications
Annelize van Loggerenberg from Krugersdorp, Gauteng, sobs uncontrollably when she talks about her 13-year-old son’s tragic death early on Wednesday morning.
Her son, JC, was still alive when she got to him where he’d fallen from a moving train at the crossing of Main Reef Road and Chamdor Road.
He had spent the previous evening at a friend’s house. The two boys were taking the train the next morning to fetch their report cards from school when JC fell out of the train just after 8 am. Both attended the Roodepark School in Roodepoort.
When he discovered what had happened, JC’s friend asked a rail attendant for help. He and the attendant drove to the Van Loggerenbergs’ house in Mindalore to fetch Annelize, who went straight to the scene of the accident.
“He was still alive when I got there. He was icy cold, so I took my jacket off and put it over him,” she says tearfully. “He said ‘Mamma’, but I told him to be quiet and save his strength because the ambulance was on its way.”
But when the ambulance arrived just a few minutes later, it was too late. JC was gone.
Annelize says JC was excited about getting his exam results because he looked forward to progressing to the next class. He also couldn’t wait for the holidays – he and a friend had been planning to go fishing at the Vaal River.
It’s still uncertain why JC fell from the train, but Annelize says her son and his friend were separated from each other soon after they boarded the train – which was very full – at the Luipaardsvlei station.
When the train pulled into the next station, Witpoortjie, another passenger told JC’s friend he’d seen JC falling from the train. The friend got off immediately and ran along the track towards JC. Transport police were already on the scene and the friend took them to Annelize’s house.
Sergeant Tshepiso Mashale of the Krugersdorp police confirmed the incident. “An investigation was opened at the Krugersdorp police station after the body of a schoolboy was find on the train tracks this morning,” Mashale said on Wednesday.
Annelize is struggling to come to terms with the news. “My heart is in pieces,” she says, her voice cracking.
- Marizka Coetzer
Read more:
‘Mom, I’ve been kidnapped’: Teen’s chilling Facebook messages after abduction
Chilling 911 call reveals how daughters begged for their lives before mother shot them dead
