Parktown Boys’ High negligent for Enock Mpianzi death
A damning report released by the Gauteng Department of Education has found Parktown Boys’ High School to have been negligent in the death of Enock Mpianzi.
The forensic report was made public by MEC Panyaza Lesufi at the Johannesburg-based school on Wednesday.
It fingered both the school and the facility where he drowned as being responsible for the death of the grade 8 pupil in January.
The 13-year-old died during a school orientation camp near Brits in North West in January.
READ: Body of Parktown Boys pupil Enock Mpianzi found
The report recommended that five teachers, the headmaster and Nyati Bush and River Lodge be held liable for the dangerous and reckless conditions of the orientation camp.
Peter Harris of Harris Niobe Molebatsi, the independent law firm which conducted the probe, said one of the main issues was the failure to conduct an accurate roll call.
He believes an accurate list of pupils could have saved Enock’s life.
"The first issue we find is that there was an issue in relation to the roll call. There's a roll call at on Wednesday morning in this hall at 8:30 and its a roll call of all the individual incoming grade 8 learners."
"The fact of the matter is that, when they get to the camp, the accurate roll call list of the boys taken at the assembly hall travels back in the bus with the bus driver and it comes back to Johannesburg."
"We find that there's negligence in the part of the school for not having a correct number of all attendees."
Harris added that the report found that the campsite lied about the water levels in the dam on the day as well as the route which the children took during the activity.
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The report recommends that the headmaster and the teachers involved face a disciplinary hearing and that the school also be held liable for negligence, as well as the school governing body for allowing the camp to take place without authorisation.
Lesufi said the principle has already been placed on suspension, which expires in April.
The implicated teachers had not been suspended as they were not named in the initial report, but their disciplinary hearings will begin in the next few days.
