Judge set to rule in Motshekga case
Judgment is expected to be handed down in the High Court in Polokwane on Monday in the damages claim brought against Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga by the family of Michael Komape, 5, who drowned in a pit latrine at his primary school in Limpopo in 2014.
Judgment is expected to be handed down in the High Court in Polokwane on Monday in the damages claim brought against Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga by the family of Michael Komape, 5, who drowned in a pit latrine at his school in Limpopo in 2014.
Motshekga is facing legal and political pressure to speed up the improvement of school infrastructure after another 5-year-old child died in a school toilet in Bizana district in the Eastern Cape in March.
President Cyril Ramaphosa instructed her to conduct an emergency audit of all schools with unsafe structures, with special focus on toilets, and gave her another three months to roll out the requisite infrastructure
She also faces a separate legal challenge to her oversight of provincial education departments’ management of school infrastructure, brought by advocacy group Equal Education.
In March, Equal Education asked the High Court in Bisho to compel Motshekga to fix loopholes in the rules for school norms and standards, arguing that the gaps in the law allowed government to shirk its duties.
Section 27 argued on behalf of Michael Komape’s parents the state was, or ought reasonably to have been, aware the toilets at the Mahlodumela school he attended in Chebeng, Limpopo, were in need of an upgrade.
The school had records showing it had repeatedly drawn the department’s attention to the state of its infrastructure from 2005 to 2009.
His family has claimed damages for grief, or alternatively constitutional damages, and future medical expenses for his surviving siblings. It is also seeking a declaratory order that the minister has breached her constitutional duties.
“If granted, it would mean the state would have to ensure it fulfils its constitutional and statutory obligations to provide safe and decent sanitation in schools, a duty directly connected to the right to basic education,” said attorney Sheniece Linderboom.