BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI
A Grade 2 pupil and a young man died on Thursday in a tragic incident at a neighbor’s well in Nkayi Ward 19, after being overcome by suspected carbon monoxide and a total lack of oxygen.
The tragedy unfolded near Nkayi Primary School area when the young student was reportedly sent into the well by an elderly man to retrieve a bucket that had fallen to the bottom.
He reportedly lured him on the promise of buying him sweets.
When the child failed to resurface, a neighbor entered the shaft in a desperate rescue attempt.
Councillor Thubelihle Mabuza Ncube, who visited the scene on Friday, described the harrowing moments that led to the double fatality. “What happened, we understand, is that a bucket fell into the well and the boy, whose mother was not at home at the time, was lured to get in an retrieve it in exchange of sweets and things,” Ncube said. “It is said there was carbon [monoxide]… there was no oxygen at all at the bottom and that’s how he died”.
According to the councillor, the second individual who had reportedly sent the child to fetch the bucket in the well reached the bottom and was briefly able to interact with the child before being overwhelmed . “He reached the bottom, but [the gas] overcame him,” Ncube explained. “He reportedly tapped the child, but then he was overcome by that carbon and lack of air… They both died in the water “.
A third person attempted to enter the well but immediately signaled to be pulled out, reporting a suffocating heat and a total lack of oxygen inside the shaft.
The councillor expressed deep distress over the decision to send a young child into the well. “It is very painful… a Grade 2 pupil being sent into the well by elders to go and retrieve a container from the bottom,” Ncube said, noting that it appeared the community had grown accustomed to such tasks.
Due to the extreme danger posed by the air quality, rescuers were unable to physically enter the well to recover the bodies. Instead, villagers were forced to use a makeshift tool to retrieve the deceased from the surface.
“They were finally taken out not by being fetched from below; instead, they ended up using something like a wire to pull them because people were afraid to enter where that gas was,” Ncube said.
The incident has left the Nkayi community in mourning. “Nkayi is hurting deeply,” the councillor added. “It is a very painful situation”.
The accused has been charged by the police, according to the councillor,