Cape Town - A video circulating on social media has shown the events that horrified the Eastridge community on Saturday when eight children were knocked down by an e-hailing driver.
The video shows the driver in a black vehicle speedily taking a sharp turn on Elephant Road and hitting a group of children standing outside on the pavement.
The 27-year-old driver, Sadick Bakaii, appeared on Monday in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court, facing negligent and reckless driving charges, where the matter was postponed to September 26 for bail information following his arrest on Saturday.
Mitchells Plain ward councillor, Norman Adonis said: “All families that I’ve visited today, they all want justice. I’m sorry for the trauma that the children and families have gone through at this stage but thank God there were no fatalities.”
The mother of one of the victims, Sandra Jordan, said her 12-year-old son narrowly survived the incident but it could have been worse.
“My boy was involved in an accident in May and he had a major brain operation, so if anything should have happened with him just knocking his head, it could’ve been fatal.
“He is still in recovery stage so he shouldn’t get any knock to the head whatsoever. For him to be in an accident just three months later is very traumatising for us as his parents and to have witnessed how the car knocked them, it wasn’t a nice thing to see,” Jordan said.
Another victim’s mother, Nuraan Pretorius, said she was horrified by the scene. Her 11-year-old daughter had been injured on her thigh, hip, ankle and heel.
She said she was at the police station when the driver was arrested and while she wants the driver to get a fitting punishment, the video didn’t show how the situation came about.
It is alleged the e-hailing driver had dropped off a 15-year-old girl and when the girl complained to her father that she had been sexually harassed by him, the man confronted the driver to lay a complaint and in that moment the driver sped off.