A year of grief: Durban father speaks of unbearable loss after twins' lift-shaft tragedy

A Durban father is marking one of the most painful anniversaries imaginable — a year since his twins died in a lift-shaft tragedy that shattered his family and, by his own account, a fundamental part of who he is. In a raw and deeply personal account published by IOL on 19 October 2026, the grieving father described his enduring anguish in words that need little elaboration: 'Part of me is dead inside.'

The tragedy, which occurred approximately a year before the article was published, involved the deaths of the man's twins in an incident connected to a lift shaft. The precise circumstances of how the children came to be in or near the shaft, and the exact sequence of events that led to their deaths, have not been detailed in the available trend data. What is clear is that the loss was sudden, violent, and utterly devastating — the kind of event from which a parent's sense of normality never fully recovers.

For many South African families, the story will strike a familiar chord of anxiety. Lifts and lift shafts in residential buildings, shopping centres, and office blocks across the country are a regular feature of daily life, yet their maintenance and safety regulation remain a persistent concern. Incidents involving lift malfunctions, improperly secured shaft doors, and inadequate safety barriers have been reported in various South African cities over the years, raising uncomfortable questions about who bears responsibility when something goes catastrophically wrong.

The father's willingness to speak publicly a year on is itself significant. Bereaved parents in South Africa often face enormous pressure to grieve privately, and the cultural expectation to 'move on' can compound the isolation that follows traumatic loss. By putting his pain into words — particularly words as stark and unvarnished as 'part of me is dead inside' — the father is giving voice to a grief that many families carry silently, and is implicitly challenging any notion that time automatically heals the deepest wounds.

The human dimension of this story also raises broader questions about accountability and systemic change. When children die in accidents involving built infrastructure, the immediate focus is often on the tragedy itself. But anniversaries have a way of redirecting attention toward what, if anything, has changed in the intervening months. Whether any legal proceedings, safety investigations, or regulatory reviews followed the original incident is not confirmed by the available information, and those details remain unclear at this stage.

What South Africans do know, based on what has been reported, is that this father is still living with the consequences of a preventable — or at least an unexplained — loss. The phrase he used is not merely an expression of sadness; it reflects a psychological reality recognised by trauma specialists. Losing a child, let alone two children simultaneously, represents one of the most severe forms of grief a human being can experience. The twinning bond — the particular closeness of twins within a family — can amplify that loss further, as parents grieve not only two individuals but an entire dimension of their family's identity.

For the Durban community and for South Africans more broadly, stories like this one serve as a sobering reminder that news cycles move fast, but lived consequences do not. Tragedies that generate headlines for a few days can define a family's existence for decades. The father's decision to speak out a year later is a reminder that behind every incident report is a person who still wakes up every morning carrying the weight of what happened.

What readers should watch for in the weeks ahead is whether this renewed public attention prompts any official response — whether from building management, local authorities, or the relevant regulatory bodies — regarding lift safety standards in KwaZulu-Natal and nationally. South Africa's Occupational Health and Safety Act and various building regulations govern the maintenance and inspection of lifts, but enforcement has historically been uneven. The question of whether this family has received any form of justice, answers, or closure remains, based on available information, unanswered.

For now, a father in Durban is doing what many bereaved parents do quietly and without acknowledgement: enduring. His words, brief and devastating, say more about the human cost of infrastructure failure and institutional neglect than any statistic could.