A Nelson Mandela Bay family’s desperate walk to find shelter after being evicted ended in tragedy when a minibus taxi struck and killed their 13-year-old daughter on Wednesday night. As her father tried to stem the bleeding with his hands and her mother screamed for help, the Grade 5 pupil took her last breath on the roadside.
“It is a sad, sad situation,” Yalinka Senekal’s uncle, Michael Davis, told IOL, describing the nightmare his sister Susan, brother‑in‑law Charl and their two surviving children, aged 18 and two, have endured since the collision on the Cuyler Street Bridge towards Kruisrivier in Kariega.
Police spokesperson Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg sketched the sequence of events. “The driver of a white Toyota Quantum taxi was travelling towards Kwanobuhle when he noticed pedestrians walking on the side of the bridge at 6.33 pm,” she said. “The driver reportedly heard another vehicle hoot and moments later collided with the 13-year-old pedestrian.
“The child sustained fatal injuries and was declared dead at the scene.
“The driver, who has been identified, was not arrested and is cooperating with the investigation.”
According to Davis, the family had only just stepped into the street after being put out of their home. “The family were evicted at that moment, so they were on their way to town to look for a place to sleep,” he said. He had been at work and could not reach them as the eviction unfolded. “I couldn’t get hold of them when they were evicted because I was still at work,” he said. “But when I got home, my wife was already on the phone with the person who had evicted them.
“I had just walked into the house at that moment and just after the call ended, we received the news that the little girl had been knocked over.”
He raced to the bridge, where emergency services had cordoned off the scene. “The scene was not a pleasant one, that I can tell you,” he said. “My sister had to stand to the side, and Yalinka’s body was lying off to the side and had been covered.
“My sister had to stand away; she could not see the body, and neither could I.”
A forensic team removed the child’s body while relatives tried to support one another. Davis managed to speak to the parents in the aftermath. “I was able to speak to my sister and brother‑in‑law, and Yalinka died in his arms,” he said. “After the incident, he naturally tried to help her, but she died in his arms.”
Between calls to police and family members, Davis tried to make immediate arrangements for the traumatised household. “The children are with me,” he said. “My sister and her husband are at my niece’s house, and the children are with me. We are all just helping out wherever and however we can.”
He described Yalinka as a bright and loving child whose absence has left a yawning gap. “Yalinka was an incredibly beautiful and intelligent girl. It is very tragic,” he said. The 13‑year‑old, a pupil at Laerskool Frans Conradie, had been walking with her family on the bridge when she was hit.
In the official account released by police, the taxi driver travelling towards Kwanobuhle observed pedestrians on the bridge at 6.33 pm, heard a hooter from another vehicle and, moments later, collided with the teenager. The driver, who has been identified, has not been arrested and is cooperating with investigators.
Janse van Rensburg confirmed that detectives have opened a culpable homicide docket. “The driver, who has been identified, was not arrested and is cooperating with the investigation.” She added: “The child sustained fatal injuries and was declared dead at the scene.” The SAPS will now gather statements from witnesses, review any available traffic or private surveillance footage along Cuyler Street and Kruisrivier approaches, and conduct a detailed scene reconstruction as part of the culpable homicide probe.
The tragedy unfolded against a backdrop of sudden displacement. Davis said the family had been evicted that evening and were en route to town to look for temporary accommodation when the crash occurred. As word filtered through to relatives, rapid phone calls gave way to a rush to the site and the grim reality of what had happened on the bridge.
By the time Davis arrived, paramedics had covered the child and were awaiting forensic services. His sister, Susan, had to be led away and shielded from the view. “My sister had to stand away; she could not see the body, and neither could I,” he said. The family has asked for privacy, with Charl and Susan too heartbroken to speak publicly. They indicated they would only comment after the funeral, which is expected to take place next weekend.
Community members who gathered nearby spoke quietly of the broader hardships faced by families who lose their homes, and of the dangers of walking with children along busy corridors at night, especially on bridges with limited pedestrian protection. While formal questions about the driver’s actions and the exact mechanics of the crash will be tested through the SAPS investigation and the culpable homicide inquiry, neighbours focused on supporting the grieving family and helping with immediate needs as they prepared for a burial under difficult circumstances.
Within hours of the collision, relatives began coordinating where the parents and siblings would sleep and how they would manage the days ahead. Davis confirmed that he has taken in the children while their parents stay with a niece. Practical matters—documents, school notifications, funeral arrangements—sit alongside the rawness of the loss.
As the docket proceeds, officers will consider the driver’s statement, road conditions on the Cuyler Street Bridge at the time, lighting, signage, and traffic flow towards Kwanobuhle, as well as any witness testimony about the hooting reported moments before impact. The culpable homicide process, standard in fatal road incidents, will determine whether negligence contributed to the death. At present, the taxi driver remains unarrested but is cooperating, according to police.
For Davis, the facts are secondary to the immediate pain. “It is a sad, sad situation,” he said again, the words bearing the weight of a night that began with eviction and ended with a father cradling his dying child on a cold bridge. The family’s priority now is to lay Yalinka to rest and to gather themselves around her parents and siblings. Further questions—about housing, safety, and accountability—will follow, but for now, grief is the centre of their world.
