By BRIAN HATYOKA –
A TRAGEDY has befallen a child-headed home in Livingstone after two children from the same family were run over and killed by a truck in Ngwenya Township on Tuesday night.
Recently, the Sunday Times of Zambia carried a story on the same family headed by a 16-year-old mother Alice Mwala.
Mwala was asking for help from well-wishers to sustain her family and resume her school in grade five as she could not manage to do it on her own.
She stopped school in grade five at the age of 14 when she was impregnated by a 21-year-old man and later forced into a brief “marriage” with another older man.
Mwala and her siblings lost their mother four years ago and they are currently staying in Ngwenya Township in a house left by their late parent.
As for Mwala, she had a 14-month-old baby and looks after two school-going young brothers and a niece, Enelesi.
Both men who impregnated her and married her, respectively, had since abandoned her and she is only receiving support from an organisation known as Tutalike Life Begins.
However, on a sad turn of events, Mwala’s 14-month-old baby and her niece Enelesi died on Tuesday evening after they were run over by a truck in Ngwenya Township.
Southern Province Commissioner of Police Mary Chikwanda confirmed the death of the two children.
Ms Chikwanda said the Police arrested the driver in question and is expected to appear in court.
At the funeral house in Ngwenya, a neighbour and witness Prisca Mugwagwa said that Alice sent the deceased to buy snacks known as ‘jiggies’ around 19:00 hours on Tuesday at a place after Namatama Health Post where they met their fate.
Ms Mugwagwa said Alice gave the two K5 and, unfortunately, the truck ran over the two children as they were moving.
“After buying the jiggies, a truck was coming near the two as it wanted to park at a nearby but it skidded when the brakes failed and hit the two children.
“I then rushed to the scene and found the driver had been taken by the Police, while the two were taken to Batoka mortuary,” Ms Mugwagwa said.
Another neighbour Prisca Milandu said the late Enelesi died on the spot, while the 14-year-old child died on the way to Livingstone General Hospital.
Ms Milandu said she rushed to Batoka mortuary in the evening where she found the two bodies.
“The bodies are just looking normal and it is like they died because of internal injuries after the two were hit,” she said.
And Alice Mwala, the mother to the late child, said she was disturbed at the death of her child and her niece.
She said she sent the two to buy jiggies but the two never returned and she later discovered that the two were hit and died.
“I only hope the law will take its course on the driver who killed my child and my niece,” she said.
And a sympathiser, Susiku Mwanang’ombe, said there was need for the Government to intervene in child-headed homes by taking care of such children.
Ms Mwanang’ombe, who has been looking after Alice and her siblings for some time, said most child-headed homes were living in hopeless conditions and they needed help from the Government through the Social Welfare Department.
“We need to have safe homes for disadvantaged children just like old people’s homes.
“The driver who killed the two should compensate Alice’s family.
Further, the Road and Safety Agency (RTSA) should not allow vehicles which have alleged dysfunctional brakes to move on the roads because they are a danger to pedestrians,” Ms Mwanang’ombe said.
Mwala said in an interview recently that Godfrey Mwanza, 21, the man who allegedly impregnated her when she was in grade five at Libala Basic School in 2013, accepted responsibility for the pregnancy but he later abandoned her.
She said Gift Siandeke, who is older than Mwanza, allegedly married her by force for three days and dumped her after which he married another woman.
Asked if she was aware that the two men committed the offence of defilement and they needed to be reported to the police, Mwala said she was not aware that any crime was committed as she was ignorant of the law.
