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Gauteng Premier says City of Tshwane must respond quickly to bad infrastructure

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Gauteng Premier David Makhura has called on the City of Tshwane to take responsibility for the deaths of five Soshanguve children, killed by an Apollo street lamp that fell on them.

The children were laid to rest in a mass funeral in Soshanguve, North of Pretoria on Saturday.

They were aged between six and twelve years.

A massive street lamp fell on top of them a week ago. Four died instantly while another one died later in hospital.

Their families are still in shock.

A Matibiko family representative pleaded to the municipality: “Tshwane municipality – I hope this tragedy will be the last incident… please clean your house, we don’t want any family to experience what we have gone through, its very painful.”

Offering his condolences – the Gauteng premier tore into the city of Tshwane to respond quickly to the ailing infrastructure, almost suggesting that the incident could have been avoided.

“The city must be frank, open, take accountability and say this thing happened, this is how it happened… because that is what I am doing at a provincial level, the ANC is not returning the city of Tshwane, so the ANC can’t be blamed for something when it is not in government.”

The City says the incident should not be used as a political game and that investigations are underway.

Cilliers Brink, acting mayor of City of Tshwane elaborates: “There has to be answers in the wake of this tragedy, we have to make sure that this does not happen again, whether that is to take the issue of maintenance of our infrastructure as a matter of life or death.”

But for these families and angry residents it’s not enough.

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