A four-year-old boy died tragically after accidentally falling from the window of a sixth-floor flat in Wynberg.
The little boy died in the parking lot of the Grand Central residential complex along Main Road on Wednesday.
The heartbroken family of Joey Mupandenyama were in shock as his lifeless body was covered with a blanket by residents.
Dad Martin, 31, says he was at work at the time of the incident and rushed home after receiving the bad news from neighbours.
He works for the Parent-Teacher Association at the South African College Junior School (SACS).
“I just went to work today because the schools were opening and both me and his mother were not here,” the heartbroken man says.
“My brother was looking after him in our flat on the sixth floor where we have lived for two years.
“It happened shortly after 8am, I had just left for work when the incident happened.
“I was told he was playing on the bed and fell through the window. When I got there, he had already died and was covered.”
Neighbours covered little Joey’s body with a blanket and told the Daily Voice that the boy was declared dead on the scene and appeared to have a cracked skull.
They say none of the windows have burglar bars and believe this might have saved the child’s life.
Police spokesperson Colonel Andrè Traut confirms the incident and says: “The circumstances surrounding the death of a four-year-old boy are being investigated after he fell from his parents’ apartment on the sixth floor in Wynberg.
“At the time of the incident, the boy was left in the care of his 25-year-old uncle. A death inquest case docket has been registered”.
When the Daily Voice visited the apartment yesterday, Joey’s traumatised mother was sitting on the floor crying.
Martin described his son as a joyful child who always made him smile: “He is our first and only child and we are still in shock. It was an accident and we are having a hard time right now.”