Body of missing Khomanani Mawa (6) recovered from sewerage after falling in manhole
Updated | By Nokukhanya N Mntambo
Specialist teams have positively identified the body of Khomanani Mawa after a frantic 4-day search for the six-year-old boy.
Mawa was plunged into a manhole in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg, on Sunday while playing with friends.
The exact details of the incident still remain sketchy but it’s understood the family has it on good authority that he may have been pushed in by another child.
Mawa’s lifeless body turned up in Evaton, in the Emfuleni Municipality, on Wednesday afternoon.
Speaking at the scene where the body was pulled out of sewerage, Emfuleni mayor Gift Moerane described the recovery as tragic.
“The picture that I had is that we are going just to get a skeleton because this is sewer but to my surprise the body is still a body so they can recognise the boy.
“That gives me comfort that they can still say ‘that is our son’ but the sad thing is that it’s the soul that has been lost,” he added.
The City of Johannesburg, responsible for the Orange Farm manholes and sewer network, was also on board the rescue operations.
The city’s MMC for Community Development Margaret Arnolds admitted they had a crisis on their hands.
“The issue of uncovered manholes is a difficult one. It’s disturb that this happens. I think service delivery needs to happen all the time,” she told media at the site.
“Manholes go missing because they are sold for scrap, they are stolen off and they are sold for scrap. And I’m not trying to say that the City of Johannesburg has been doing what it has been doing, or any other municipality, but we’ve seen that they steal these covers.
“The onus is also on our officials to ensure that when there’s a cover missing they need to bring a cover so that we can have it covered because it’s dangerous,” Arnold added.
The family is yet to make burial arrangements for little Mawa.
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