HAVING barely settled into the after-life, late actor Andile Gumbi knows no peace.
The four-year-old son of the former Isibaya star is fighting for his life at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.
This following an incident involving Andile’s baby mama, Hlengiwe Ngcongo, and her current squeeze.
Andile died two months ago after suffering a heart attack while working for a musical production in Israel.
His heartbroken mother Phindile Gumbi couldn’t contain her grief when talking to the SunTeam. She said she was shattered to learn her grandchild, whom she’d been looking after since last year, was shot in the crotch.
Said Phindile: “Andile and Hlengiwe brought over the child and asked me to take care of him until they were financially stable. They were planning to take him back next year but Andile passed away.
“The one time I let him out of my sight, this happens. I’m hurt! He was safe with me. Only God knows why this happened.”
According to Phindile, Hlengiwe asked to visit the child on Thursday and arrived on Friday.
“When she got to the house, she started packing all his clothes as if he wasn’t coming back and they left. I allowed her because she’s the mother and I’m just a guardian. I have no right to prevent her from taking the child.”
But in the wee hours of Monday morning, Hlengiwe phoned Andile’s mum panicking.
“She asked me if the baby was on my medical aid because he’d been hurt. I said no and she hung up.”
Phindile said a few hours later a frantic Hlengiwe phoned her again to inform her Andile’s son had been injured by a gun that was in her boyfriend’s bag.
“She claimed he was carrying the boyfriend’s bag, dropped it by mistake and the gun went off. But why was the gun not in a safe? I don’t know what to say to Hlengiwe, but thank God the boy is alive and now stable.”
Asked for her account, Hlengiwe said: “I don’t know what you want me to say. My son is hurt and I just want him to feel better.”
An insider, who asked to remain anonymous, accused Hlengiwe of being an irresponsible mother.
Said the friend: “It’s barely been two months and she’s dating and introducing her son to a stranger. Andile must be turning in his grave.”
Gauteng police spokesperson Captain Mavela Masondo said police have opened a case of failure to safeguard a firearm and negligent handling of a firearm against the owner.
He said: “It is alleged that on Sunday at about 10.50pm, a man (35) was with the boy and his mum when he left his firearm in a bag and placed it on the TV cabinet and went to his car outside. He heard a gunshot going off inside the house. It is then that they realised that the boy had allegedly shot himself in the lower body when he was handling the firearm that he took out of the bag. A case was opened and docket taken to Senior Public Prosecutor for a decision but no arrests have been made so far.”
