Thulamela Mayor Cllr Grace Mahosi has urged communities, pastors and structures around Shikundu village to rally around the families who had lost loved ones during a freak accident.

Mahosi was addressing mourners during an emotional mass funeral of three young men at the Saselamani Stadium on Saturday. The three were buried with the assistance of the Thulamela Municipality.

Jacky Sithole (25), Gerxon Mthombeni (17), a pupil of Jim Chavani Secondary School, and Given Maluleke (28) were killed last Monday while digging for building sand on the banks of the now dry Shingwedzi River. The sand collapsed on them, killing them instantly.

Two of their friends, Kenneth Maluleke and Nhlamulo Maluleke, both pupils of Matimba High School at Nkavele, managed to escape and alerted the community.

Mahosi said she was saddened and shocked by the incident, which also touched the whole country. “We are here as government to lend you a shoulder to lean on in these difficult times. We do not only come to you when there is something good, but as government we will always be with you, in happiness and times of grief,” said Mahosi. She urged the families to have faith in God and to know that He will not forsake them.

The friends were assisting Given, whose wife was expecting a baby. It was said that he wanted to make sure that when the child came from hospital, a house would be ready for the child and his mother.

Representing the Mthombeni family, who lost their son Gerxon, Mr Vicky Mthombeni said there were many unexplainable deaths in the community. If it were in the olden days, they would have collected money and sought the services of an inyanga to determine who was behind the bad spell in the community, he added.

He appealed to local community structures to support pastors to pray and exorcise bad spirits haunting the community. “My family also had its fair share of ill luck and we need your prayers to cope with all that,” said Mthombeni, referring to incidents which befell the larger Mthombeni family before Gerxon’s untimely death. In February this year, his younger brother Elias lost his wife when a hut fell on her while she was demolishing it to prepare for a family gathering.

One of the victims of the Jub Jub drag racing incident, Andile Mthombeni, is a member of the family.

The three were later buried at different graveyards in the village.