Teen falls to death while playing in a trench at Soweto train station

06 June 2019 - 17:34 By Nico Gous
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
The child's corpse was found near Merafe train station.
The child's corpse was found near Merafe train station.
Image: 123rf.com/Marina Pissarova

City of Johannesburg (CoJ) officials discovered the corpse of a 14-year-old child who died on Sunday in a trench at a construction site at a train station in Soweto.

Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) spokesperson Susan Monyai said on Wednesday the corpse was found near Merafe train station.

“According to the site agents’ incident report, three youngsters were swimming in the trench that had filled with groundwater and one of them unfortunately slipped and fell to his death. It is suspected that some of the safety measures that were in place to prevent access may have been stolen, which left the trench unsecured,” Monyai said.

The JDA shut down the construction site after the incident and opened a case with the police. The JDA started upgrading the pedestrian walkways at the train station in May 2018 and expects to finish the project in October.


subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now