RAF to pay R4.6m after dreams shattered
sent the boy who initially saw my son at the bottom of the pool into the pool once again to see if my son was there.
“The two supervisors then called a third supervisor, who eventually got into the pool and took my son’s body out.”
A devastated Seboko believes her son would still be alive today had the supervisors on duty acted decisively.
“What if the teacher could have saved him? So much time was wasted and the supervisors just looked on.”
Seboko also questioned the supervisors’ decision to send another pupil to identify her son’s body at the bottom of the pool.
“How the hell can you send a little boy back into the pool to identify my son’s body? When he saw my son for the first time that must have been traumatic on its own.
“What kind of adults are they?”
She is furious with the school, which she says continues to conceal the circumstances around her son’s death.
“What makes me angry is that the school continues to lie to me. I went back to the school because I wanted answers. I wanted to know where the supervisor was when all this happened. All he said was he saw nothing.
“Why didn’t he tell me that another pupil told him that my son was at the bottom of the pool? The fact that the school continues to hide crucial information shows that they are trying to cover up something.”
Seboko does not believe her son drowned accidentally. When she visited the mortuary two weeks ago to receive the results of the post-mortem, she discovered that he had several cuts on his body, including a cut beside his lip on the right cheek, a cut across the back of his neck, as well as a cut on top of his head.
“The post-mortem results confirm my son had drowned .... We suspect that it was an initiation that went horribly wrong.”
Meanwhile, the Gauteng Department of Education has remained tightlipped.
“We are investigating the matter. That is all I can say,” said spokesperson Steve Mabona.
MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi confirmed last month that action would be taken against the leadership of Laerskool Bekker Primary.
Magaliesburg police are investigating the matter.
ZELDA VENTER zelda.venter@inl.co.za
A YOUNG woman’s dream of working on a luxury yacht based in Fort Lauderdale in the US was shattered after she was involved in a multi-vehicle accident.
Marizaan Niemand, 21, suffered multiple injuries in the accident years ago on the N2 between Sodwana Bay and Joburg. She had been a passenger in a car and her injuries included a fractured humerus and soft tissue injuries to her neck and spine.
The accident occurred in March 2017 when she was returning to Gauteng from a diving school training course as part of her preparations to pursue her career in the US working on a yacht.
She instituted a damages claim in the Gauteng High Court against the
Road Accident Fund (RAF), which has agreed to settle her claim and pay her nearly R4.6 million in damages.
The bulk of this amount is calculated for loss of earnings in light of her shattered dream of working abroad in what could have been a lucrative career.
Niemand explained that she had not been happy with an office-bound job and explored other opportunities. She opted for diving and enrolled for the open-water diving course in Sodwana, hoping to qualify as a dive master and then become a diving instructor.
She also planned to develop her skills in underwater photography. She had been one dive away from her first qualification when the accident occurred.
Her dream, she said, had been to go to the US and work in the Fort
Lauderdale or Miami Beach area of Florida, a mecca of luxury yachting
An industrial psychologist, who presented a report to the court, said women who worked as crew on yachts were at the beck and call of the wealthy; they worked hard, were up early and went to sleep late.
But because of her injuries, Niemand would not be able to manage the job and her dreams turned to dust.
The court heard how crew members earned hundreds of dollars a month, as well as tips. It was said that the value of the yachting industry in the Fort Lauderdale area was estimated to be in the vicinity of $13 billion (R195bn).
Niemand’s lawyer, JP Rudd, of Adams and Adams, said the evidence regarding the potential of work in Fort Lauderdale and the huge losses his client was now facing, prompted the RAF to settle the matter.