ANC study group mourns teen’s tragic drowning in Meloding sewage quarry

By Nkhensani Chauke

The ANC Study Group on Water and Sanitation has expressed deep shock and sadness over the tragic death of 14-year-old Pule Lithebe on Sunday.

Lithebe tragically drowned in a sewage-filled quarry in Meloding, Virginia, leaving the local community in shock.

The Matjhabeng Local Municipality employees were on Sunday dispatched to drain the sewage, where his body was later found stuck in the mud at a quarry located in an open area near the Meloding Graveyard.

The SAPS Diving Unit was also summoned to the scene, but it was a health risk because of the sewage in the quarry.

“While this latest death did not occur at a construction site, it is equally unacceptable that the Matjhabeng Local Municipality does not cordon off areas where the bodies of raw sewage have formed and some of the pans where these bodies of untreated sewer have formed, are of the