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The scrambler which Marnuwico Vosloo (13) lost control of on Sunday, crashing into a tree on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, had been brand new.
Marnuwico got the bike on Saturday, a friend of the family says. And on Sunday morning he crashed, dying on impact.
"Jis, tomorrow's bike ride is going to be flippen awesome," Marnuwico had written on Instagram the night before he died. He'd apparently sold his go-karts to be able to buy the motorbike. In pictures and videos on social media Marnuwico, who loved cars and bikes since he was little, can be seen riding the scrambler in a parking lot, smiling broadly.
He captioned one of the Instagram videos, "Got a new motorbike today", with heart-eye emojis.
Colonel Thandeka Mbele, a KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson, yesterday confirmed to YOU that Marnuwico had apparently lost control of the bike and hit a tree. He was declared dead on the scene.
The accident happened on a dirt track in Margate. His au pair had accompanied him.
Marnuwico's parents, Mike and Marietjie Vosloo, had to identify the boy's body yesterday.
Mike, who works overseas, arrived at OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg late on Sunday afternoon. He and Marietjie, who now lives in Joburg, as well as another family member drove from there to Margate.
"Marietjie was sobbing," a friend told YOU after they'd been to identify her son's body. "There are no words to make it better."
This is the second tragedy in two years to strike the couple, who are now estranged.
Mike's daughter from his previous marriage, 17-year-old Mundolene, died in October 2016 during a family holiday in Mauritius.
Marnuwico, Mike and Marietjie's son, as well as Mundolene's younger brother (now 15), had also been along on the holiday at the Riu Creole resort.
Mundolene and Marietjie, who'd rarely seen eye to eye, had argued. Marietjie had hit Mundolene and the teen had later collapsed and died. But it was ruled that Marietjie's blow hadn't necessarily been the cause of death. An autopsy showed Mundolene had died of a massive brain bleed at the base of her skull which could've been caused by anything from a hard blow in the pool where they'd been playing earlier to an existing aneurysm.
Marietjie had spent more than a year in a Mauritian prison before returning home to South Africa earlier this year.
