An 11-year-old schoolboy was electrocuted and killed as he played on a bouncy castle in his garden during lockdown.
Pedre and his sister Anele, 5, were playing on the inflatable after their parents Paul and Rhodine de Beer hired it to keep the children entertained during quarantine.
However, as the youngsters enjoyed some fresh air and played outside, Paul and Rhodine heard laughter turn to screams of horror after Pedre tripped over a generator.
As he began "shaking violently" in front of his frantic mother, Rhodine who was severely electrocuted, but survived, as she desperately pulled her son away.
Paramedics raced to the family's home in Heidelberg in Gauteng Province, South Africa, but despite an hour long battle the emergency services declared the schoolboy dead.
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A family friend said: “Paul and Rhodine are devastated and Anele is lost without her big brother. The castle seemed a great idea for the kids and their friends to bounce on.
“There must have been a fault as you don’t just get killed if you touch the motor surely? The castle has been deflated and is being examined by experts to see what went wrong.
“There must have been a short circuit or something that turned the motor live. That house is always full of fun but it will be a long time until they get over this tragedy” she said.
In 2012 Ruan Pieterse, 5, was electrocuted and killed at Stonehaven-on-Vaal resort in nearby Zuurfontein when the power box from a bouncy castle toppled onto his legs.
In 2017 five children were seriously injured and schoolgirl Vinsesher Christians, 5, killed when a driver ploughed his station wagon into a bouncy castle in a garden in Cape Town.
A South African Police Service spokesman said it was their understanding that the de Beer family had hired the bouncy castle for three weeks as a treat for their children.
South Africa's three week coronavirus shut down has just been extended to five weeks by President Cyril Ramaphosa with total deaths due to COVID-19 at just 27 so far.
The owners of the bouncy castle refused to comment on the electrocution and death of the popular youngster until after the investigation into their equipment is completed.
A Governor at tragic Pedre’s school Jaco Billing said: “He was a beautiful freckle faced blue eyed boy well loved by his fellow learners and teachers and is in all our prayers”.
