Cape Talk, Wednesday morning

I'll go straight to my voting station and I want to be in the queue with other South Africans. Okay, let's start with the stories that you have been covering in your latest edition. Talk to me about the child that fell into an exposed manhole in Philippi. So, this is an absolutely tragic story. And this happened over the weekend on Saturday in Samora, Michel. A little one-year-old boy was playing outside his home. Like, we tried to imagine how this could have happened, but.

It wasn't up the road in a park or anything. It was right in front of his home where a city of Cape Town contractor had been fixing a collapsed manhole outside this child's home, family home. And, you know, residents have been saying the site was not secured. And the boy, unfortunately, was playing and he fell into the manhole and drowned and died, unfortunately. So now the

Of Cape Town has launched an investigation to find out how this may have happened. But the ward counselor, we spoke to Lungisa Sumdaka, said he had been trying to contact the owner of the company to say that this site needs to be secured and had not been secured since around August this year. And, you know, we spoke to Zaid Bajuddin, who's the water and sanitation maker member. And, you know, they have sent their condolences to the family, but you know, he said he's not going to comment any.

Further at this stage, because there's this ongoing investigation into the incident. But we were alerted by Movement for Care, Nkorsikona Swatoi. And their organization has been communicating with the family, has been helping the family try and navigate the situation. But Cape Townians will know that Nkorsikona's family themselves went through a tragic incident where his own nephew fell into an uncovered manhole in.

In 2021, I think the incident happened. So, you know, this is not an isolated incident. I think of just in my own area in Watergate in Mitchells Plain, there's a collapsed manhole at the entrance to where we live, and that's been open for I think two months now. And young kids going to school are having to hop over and navigate that entrance as well. So this is a municipal issue that really is important that needs to be resolved.

And then let's go to a great initiative of hikers raising money for a woman's shelter. So this is an incredible initiative. And every day in October, a group of Cape Town residents have been walking up to Blockhouse, King's Blockhouse, just under Devil's Peak. And it is to raise funds for survivors of gender-based violence, specifically living at the Sahar Ki Batman.