Little boy who suffered broken legs after farmer rammed car into him having nightmares, says mom
Khwezi Jantjies and his mother, Magdalene, were walking along Station Road in the West Coast town of Lutzville at around noon last Friday, when the driver of a vehicle, with a trailer attached, rammed into them and drove over the child.
Magdelene Jantjies, the mother of 6-year-old Khwezi Jantjies, explains how she and her son were knocked down by a farmer in Lutzville in the Western Cape. Picture: Lauren Isaacs/Eyewitness News
CAPE TOWN - A six-year-old Western Cape boy, who had both his legs fractured by a man who accused him of stealing an orange, is having nightmares of the tragic incident.
Khwezi Jantjies and his mother, Magdalene, were walking along Station Road in the West Coast town of Lutzville at around noon last Friday, when the driver of a vehicle, with a trailer attached, rammed into them and drove over the child.
Khwezi had a successful operation at Paarl Hospital last week and has since been sent back to a hospital in Vredendal, closer to his family home.
The 70-year-old man is expected to make a second appearance in the Vredendal Magistrates Court on Monday for a bail application.
Magdalene Jantjies said that she and her son had walked past the accused's premises, a smallholding, while making their way to buy food in the town.
Khwezi then apparently stopped and picked up an orange that had fallen to the ground before attempting to reach through a fence to grab a second orange on the ground.
The emotional mother explained that moments later, she heard the accused scream before ramming into them, pinning them up against the fence, with Khwezi's legs eventually getting stuck under the tyres.
"He said: 'Ouch, Mommy... I'm going to die!' And the child screamed, he screamed and I said: 'It will all be alright, Khwezi.'"
Magdalene said that she'd been praying by her son's bedside, asking God to relieve his pain.
"He talks in his sleep, he cries in his sleep and he has night terrors where he wakes up startled but I just keep praying that the Lord will give my child strength."
Magdalene said that they would now focus on getting counselling and on Khwezi's recovery, to ensure that the grade R learner, who loves playing soccer with his friends, can return to the playground.
Khwezi is not the first Western Cape child who suffered severely after being accused of stealing fruit.
In Klawer in February 2022, 13-year-old Jerobejin van Wyk was killed after allegedly stealing fruit mangoes from a tree in a resident's garden.
The teenager was also hit by a bakkie before he was killed.
The man accused of his murder, Daniel Smit, is set to go on trial later this year.