FORMER George council employee Mandisi Mntuyedwa was sentenced yesterday in the George Regional Court to three years in prison for manslaughter after driving over three small children playing in their driveway in Thembalethu last November.

He also received a three-year suspended sentence for drunken driving and a R2000 fine or 100 days imprisonment for reckless driving.

Mntuyedwa lost control of his car while speeding and fatally injured the three children.

Sankelo and his twin sister Nasiphe Yawani, 6, and their cousin Mihle, 5, were playing in the driveway of their home in Ngcacani Street on the afternoon of November 29 when Mntuyedwa ran over them.

All three sustained multiple injuries and died on the scene.

The accident had the community up in arms but Mntuyedwa was granted bail when he appeared in court three days later.

Mihle’s father, Mxolisi Yawani, said after the sentencing that the family felt that justice had not been done.

“We are glad the case is finally over and now we can put our children to rest and carry on with our lives. But we are not happy as we feel this sentence doesn’t say much to someone who has killed our children.

“This is the price the family paid for believing in justice – the community would have sorted him out long ago. Nothing the courts are doing is stopping people from drinking and driving and killing,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Yawani told the court he did not want a light sentence for Mntuyedwa after prosecutor Riette de Waal asked him what kind of sentence he thought would be appropriate.

The court was packed with more than 40 relatives and their children holding placards and wearing T-shirts bearing pictures of the twins and their cousin, as well as the vehicle Mntuyedwa was driving at the time.

Tears flowed as an emotional Angelina Yawani, the children’s granny, told the court of the hardship her family had suffered since the deaths of the children last year.

She said the family were still grieving and her surviving grandchild, Mila, the twin’s four-year-old sister who witnessed the accident, was traumatised and cried daily for her siblings. “This has been very hard on all of us – I can’t sleep at night, I worry and I am now the sole breadwinner. It is very hard to support the family with this terrible burden.”

The family broke down crying when a letter from Mntuyedwa was read to the court, telling them how sorry he was for causing the accident.

After the accident, Mntuyedwa told his supervisor Mario van Rooyen that he wished that he had been the one to die.

Attorney Christo Jordan told the court in his defence that Mntuyedwa, himself a father of four children, had suffered from post-traumatic stress symptoms and was “heartsore and very sorry”.