Two grade four students sustained injuries at the Kalkrand Primary School last week Thursday after they were encouraged by a callous driver to sit on a tyre tied to a moving tractor.

A vexed member of the Kalkrand community, James Hansen, says that the cleaning equipment was not working so the driver of the tractor, Nico Mugenga, decided to use one of the tractor’s old tyres to remove the grass. Hansen adds that two 11-year old students, Oscar Boois en Petrus Topnaar, who were helping to clean the school’s soccer field were told by Mugenga to sit on the tyre, because the tyre was not heavy enough to remove the grass.
“Mugenga tied the old tyre onto the tractor and as the tractor pulled the tyre the grass was removed by it,” Hansen explains. He says that Mugenga had been warned that it is dangerous to let children sit on the moving tyre, but refused to listen. “What was Mugenga thinking? He knows that it is dangerous for the children. He was even warned, but he did not listen and a few minutes after the warning the boys fell from the tyre,” Hansen stressed.
When Informanté approached the Kalkrand police station an officer named, Coleman said that a case was reported, but that investigations are still ongoing. The boys sustained scars and Petrus has a deep wound to his arm. His aunt, Benena Topnaar, whom he lives with is, worried. “I am scared that wound could become infected and if the braces don’t work properly the boys will have scars on their bodies for the rest of their lives.”
Topnaar says that Mugenga and one Damaseb, a teacher of Kalkrand Primary School, came to her on the evening of Tuesday, 17 July and apologised for what happened to the boys. “They heard that Informanté had called the police and that is why they came asking for forgiveness. Why did they not come earlier? Why only now? They had time since after the accident last week Thursday,” Benina Topnaar says. Topnaar reportedly chased them away with a stick.