“How will we ever get past this?”
These were the desperate words of Nokhuselo Dyani, the grandmother of the four-year-old boy who perished on Tuesday, 5 November, after being chased and fatally attacked by a pack of dogs.

According to the lad’s grandfather, Johnson, young ‘Simi’ – Simikuso Ntswayimbana – had been playing with friends on the dune above Makapela, Sizamile, near his home, when three dogs rushed at them. Having run off in different directions, the other youngsters had only realised that their friend was missing when his mother, Phumla, came looking for him a while later.

All they could tell her was that Simi had run down the dune when the dogs had started chasing them.

Phumla began looking for Simi, and her friends soon came to help. Later, when the boy’s grandfather arrived home from work, he immediately called a number of community leaders and asked them to get search parties going.

By sunset, the bush on and around the dune and the Groenvallei suburb below was full of residents – all calling for Simi.
“The whole community was out there – even children formed a chain to walk down the dune, shouting his name,” said Johnson.
It was two members of the Sedgefield Fire Department, Benito Roberts and Kevin Dyani, who eventually found Simi’s lifeless body on a building site in Begonia Street. As the word quickly spread as to what had happened, the community was shaken to its core, and many members of the search party gathered at Simi’s grandparents’ home to offer support to the devastated family.

Whilst the Police have not yet officially announced the cause of death, Johnson told us he had been informed that it was obvious that the boy had fallen prey to a pack of dogs. He said that only a week earlier, one of the dogs had bitten Simi, and though it had not been a severe bite, they had spoken to the owner about it.

The grandfather was understandably still profoundly affected when he spoke to us six days after losing Simi. He said his family is broken. Proudly showing a video on his phone of his grandson singing and dancing, he even managed a smile as he described how Simi had always been so full of joy.

But a second later, the reality of what had happened returned, and he shook his head in despair.
“We are traumatised,” he said.

He asked that we thank everyone on the family’s behalf, saying that once Thertius Jones and Councillor Levael Davis started coordinating the search, people quickly came to join in and that he had been moved at how the whole of Sedgefield had come together as one community to help.
“I have never seen that before,” he said.

No arrests have been made to date, and feedback from SAPS as to their investigation has been requested, but nothing was available at time of going to press.

A memorial church service was held for Simikuso Ntswayimbana at his mother’s house on Tuesday evening. The funeral will be held from 8.30 on Thursday at the family’s home on Mbhendla Street, Makapela. A collection point has been set up at the Sedgefield Animal Matters (SAM) Charity Shop in Sedgefield to assist the family with the expenses.

Our sincere condolences go to Simi’s family at this devastating time.