Emotional funeral for little girl who was electrocuted

A fitting farewell for an angel – that is how mourners described little Twané Booysen’s funeral in Helenvale at the weekend.

The three-year-old was electrocuted on Good Friday, a tragedy that is being investigated not only by the municipality, but also by the family’s Uitenhage-based attorney, Wilma van der Bank.

Van der Bank said the municipality might have been negligent and thus could have prevented the child’s death.

Twané died almost instantly after being electrocuted when she touched metal pipes running up a wooden electricity pole, which appeared to be faulty, in a garden across from their house.

Dozens of community members attended her burial on Saturday.

Kimlyn Daniels, a family member, also blamed the municipality.

“The municipality must do something about that [electricity] pole. Other children could also fall victim,” she said.

“I do not understand why they are taking so long to fix it. It’s either they [the municipality] fix the pole, or the community has to stand up and protest.”

Bernadette Alexander said: “What happened to Nay-Nay [as she was called] is so heartbreaking. It’s so, so heartbreaking. But, if it’s God’s will, then it’s His will.

“Everyone knows that [electricity pole] is unsafe – you don’t even know where it is safe for your child to play these days.”

Alexander and Daniels were among more than 200 residents who attended Twané’s burial.

For her parents, it was their darkest day.

“We are never getting her back,” her mother, Lavona Booysen, 36, said.

“I’m broken. I can’t even sleep at night. It’s like having an open wound that you know will never heal.

“It’s so dark. I don’t even have the will to live.”

Twané’s father, Riedewaan Braner, 38, fought back tears while his daughter’s small coffin was being carried inside the church.

“We are awake on most nights. We can’t sleep. [On Friday night] I couldn’t sleep at all knowing that I would have to bury my little girl in a few hours’ time.

“My heart is broken.”

The parents said they would miss Twané’s laughter and cheer the most.

“She loved to dance and sing,” Booysen said.

“She’d tell her dad, ‘pa, speel daai song weer, asseblief!’ [dad, please play that song again].”

Twané died barely two weeks after her third birthday.

On the day of the tragedy, she was visiting her friend, another three- year-old, across from her family home in Virgo Street.

Her grandmother, Fosia Abrahams, 53, was the first family member to hear the frantic screams.

“I heard screams and they [neighbours] ran across with Nay-Nay, as we call her, in their arms,” she said.

“I could already see her body was lifeless.

“She looked blue. Her face was [turning] blue and her lips as well.

“I immediately performed CPR on her and she came to. But when I picked her up, she wet herself and threw up.

“That’s when she closed her eyes again and I knew she was gone.”

The family said the death was being investigated by their attorney.

An emotional Booysen said: “We blame them [the municipality] because this pole was reported several times and they never did anything to fix it.

“Instead, their people come and have a look at it, and then just go.”

The municipality could neither confirm nor deny the allegations.

“The electricity and energy directorate has confirmed that an investigation is still under way,” municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki said.

“The reporting time of the [electricity pole] forms part of the investigation.”