Lightning survivors terrified of walking to school

A young girl who loved the sound of rain now lives in fear of her life after being struck by lightning.

Siphokazi Tolashe, 15, was walking home from Protea Glen Secondary School, in Soweto, on Monday last week with friends Lungile Nkosi, 15, and Lindokuhle Cekiso and Bertha Ncube, both 16, when it started to rain.

That i s about all Siphokazi can recall.

Her best friend, Bertha, was not so lucky. She died at Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital on Friday.

Speaking from her home, where she is recuperating, Siphokazi said: "All I remember is walking in the rain and then waking up in the hospital. I don't recall anything about lightning."

Her mother, Nombeko Tolashe, said she had barely settled down after returning home from work when her 12-year-old son, Thato, who had earlier taken an umbrella so that he could meet his sister, returned to say that all four girls were lying in a field.

The mother of two yesterday tearfully recalled: "Their uniforms were covered in dust. It's like the lightning first rolled them about on the ground and then lined them up. I was convinced they were all dead."

Tolashe is worried about how her daughter will be affected by the lightning.

"They will only receive counselling once they get back to school but they are already showing signs of trauma.

"One or two weeks is too long to wait, especially since they lost their friend," she said.

On the same street, two houses away, is the Cekiso home .

The Cekisos' daughter, Lindokuhle, suffered head injuries and is haunted by the incident.

Her mother, Bongiwe, said yesterday: "She is jumpy all the time and gets really bad nightmares. What if this happens again?

"There is only one route that they can take to get to school and they have to walk through that dreaded field."

• Six of the nine King Edward VII School pupils struck by lightning on a cricket pitch on Tuesday returned to the Johannesburg school on Thursday.

The two boys who are still in hospital are being treated in the intensive and high-care units.

One pupil was discharged on Thursday.