It was still dark on Saturday when a shocking bang and a child's terrified cries woke people sleeping in three shacks in Black City informal settlement in Nyanga.
They found a 31-year-old driver, allegedly drunk and unlicensed, had lost control of his vehicle and ploughed into their three shacks, killing a toddler and seriously injuring his grandmother as they lay in bed.
The child, Cebo Lizo, who was not yet two, died minutes later. His grandmother, Notayimile Lizo, 57, suffered serious head injuries and is in a critical condition in GF Jooste Hospital in Manenberg. A woman in a neighbouring shack had her leg broken.
The driver ran away from the scene but residents caught up with him and he was beaten and his car set alight.
Lizo and her grandsons Cebo and Akho, one, were visiting the boys' aunt Ntsapokazi Lizo, from the Eastern Cape, and were staying in her shack which is on the pavement of Eisleben Road.
When the old car smashed into Lizo's shack, it hit the bed on which Lizo senior and little Cebo were sleeping. Ntsapokazi and Akho were asleep in another bed and, although shocked, were unhurt.
"We were asleep and I heard a loud bang and the baby started crying," said Ntsapokazi Lizo, 27.
"We have nothing left and we don't know where to go from here.
"My mother had come all the way from the Eastern Cape to visit us with our nephews, Cebo and his brother Akho, and this is what happens. We will probably stay with our relatives while we try to reconstruct everything."
She said Cebo's mother was in Johannesburg.
The driver was admitted to Groote Schuur Hospital after his beating and is believed to be in a stable but critical condition. A case of culpable homicide has been opened.
- Cape Argus
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