Woken from a nap by the piercing screams of children, KwaDwesi Methodist Church steward Mthuthuzeli Mzini — called to the scene where a six-year-old boy was crushed to death by a concrete stormwater pipe — described on Wednesday how he found the child lying in the dust with blood gushing from his ears.

Phawu Mandiyase was playing in the field on the church’s property in Gxilishe Street on Monday afternoon where four stormwater pipes were allegedly abandoned by contractors hired by the municipality in 2019...