The family of another pupil who died at the Nyati Bush Campsite ten years ago wants the lodge to be shut down. Mellony Sias also drowned during a school camp at the same lodge which recently claimed the life of Parktown Boys’ High pupil, Enock Mpianzi.
Sias was a grade 12 pupil at Adamantia High School in Kimberley at the time of her death. She was there for her school’s hockey camp.
Her mother, Diana Sias, says she knows what Enock’s family is going through.
“I feel for that family because I know what they are going through. It is a pain you can never forget. When you allow your child to go on a school tour, you expect them to return alive and it is very sad when they return a lifeless body.”
Pictures of Sias playing hockey at the bush campsite are all the family has of her final moments alive. The family last saw her on a Thursday in April 2010, only to receive news on a Sunday that she had drowned on Saturday.
Her sister, Irene Smous, says that they were told that Sias slipped while in the river.
“They said that she slipped. They were in the river I think and then she slipped so the water just flowed away with her. Somebody jumped in looking for her and then they gave up because they couldn’t find her and then she was found by a farmer and his wife.”
Sias did not have a life jacket when she and other pupils were swimming in the river. Instead, she was on a float tube.
Her father, Jacob Sias, says the campsite is a dangerous place.
“Nyati is a very dangerous place. It is a deadly place because our children are dying there and we cannot allow Nyati to continue operating because our children die there and the owners do nothing about it.”
Although their daughter will never come back, this family still seeks justice after no one was held accountable for her death.
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