Bakkie crash ends beloved son’s life
[caption id="attachment_95395" align="alignright" width="300"] DEEP MOURNING: Gloria Yayi comforts her sister Evelina Yayi following the accident
Picture: FREDLIN ADRIAAN[/caption]
Sister, 15, was pushing her wheelchair-bound brother, 8
HIS FAMILY will never again hear him singing his favourite Joyous Celebration gospel song, How Can I Repay You?
Siyamthanda Yayi’s life was cut short on Saturday when a bakkie careered off the road and ploughed into him and his sister Sinabo, 15, as they were walking on the side of the street just two blocks from their KwaLanga home in Uitenhage.
Sinabo had been pushing Siyamthanda, 8, in his wheelchair when the accident took place on Saturday evening. Sinabo sustained a broken leg. The two were walking home from nearby Tambo Square.
Yesterday, Siyamthanda’s distraught aunt Phumla said she was shocked when she was called to the scene of the accident at about 7pm.
“I immediately rushed there. “I was shocked to see Siyamthanda’s wheelchair lying on the other side of the road, its wheels still turning slowly,” she said.
“He was covered with a jacket and Sinabo was crying hysterically, complaining of pains in her leg,” Phumla said.
“I heard they were hit by a white bakkie with a canopy which drove off without stopping.”
At the time of the accident, Phumla said, the siblings’ mother, Evelina Yayi, 49, was working night shift at Sun Citrus in Addo.
“When the paramedics came they first attended to Sinabo. After that they tried to resuscitate Siyamthanda. That is when I realised we had lost him,” she said.
Police spokesman Warrant Officer Basil Seekoei said the hit-and-run took place at the corner of Lambata Street and 22nd Avenue, Langa, at about 7pm. Police were looking for the driver. Mother Evelina said: “I could sense that something was not right when I was at work. I tried calling my sisters back at home but their phones rang unanswered.
“I then called Sinabo, who was crying, saying she was in hospital. Then her phone cut off.
“The nurses immediately called me but did not say anything about my last-born son, Siyamthanda. That is when I was sent home,” Evelina said.
-Yoliswa Sobuwa and Gareth Wilson [caption id="attachment_95396" align="alignnone" width="168"] RUN DOWN: Siyamthanda Yayi[/caption]
