The body of Khayalethu Magadla (6), who fell into a manhole in Soweto last month, has been found.
Watch: The body of 6-year-old Khayalethu Magadla has been recovered
The 6-year-old went missing almost three weeks ago after allegedly falling into an open manhole while playing with friends near his Dlamini home in Soweto.
Following 20 days of intense search for Khayalethu, his lifeless body was found at the Eldorado Park Cemetery wastewater plant on Saturday afternoon.
Acting Chief of Emergency Services, Noma Mjali says it took this long to recover the child’s body because the rescue team had to actually go through the sewer pipes from where the child fell to where he was found on Saturday. She further explains that when they got to the Johannesburg wastewater treatment plant, they discovered that the water levels were at very dangerous levels.
High water levels
Mjali elaborates, “…So for the last couple of days they’ve been working tirelessly, trying to reduce the water levels so that they could go in. So they went in a couple of times in through different entrance and different manholes, but today they went into a very difficult manhole that they’ve been struggling to open for the last couple of days. They were able to recover the body of the missing child.”
