Family sue Motshekga over boy’s latrine tragedy
A LIMPOPO family are suing Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga for R3.1-million after their child drowned in a pit latrine.
On January 20 last year, sixyear-old Michael Komape went to use the toilet at Mahlodumela Lower Primary School when the corrugated iron structure collapsed. He fell into the pit and, with the structure on top of him, was unable to get out and drowned.
With the assistance of interest group Section 27, Komape’s family, from Chebeng village near Polokwane, have placed the blame for Michael’s death at the feet of Motshekga, the Basic Education Department, the school and its teachers.
They say Michael’s death was due to the department’s and the school’s “wrongful, unlawful and negligent conduct” and that it could have been prevented.
In papers lodged in the High Court in Polokwane, Michael’s parents, Rosina and Maloti Komape, and his five siblings, say: “Because the structure could not support his weight, [he] fell into the toilet pit and UNFIT: The ’toilet’ at Moletshi Crèche, left, which Michael Komape attended last year. Children use buckets in a shack to relieve themselves. Maloti Komape, right, Michael’s father, has been collecting books to start a village library subsequently died as a result of inhaling excrement, urine and other putrid substances in the pit at the time.”
The family are claiming emotional damage, loss of earnings and future medical treatment linked to the youngster’s death.
“The defendants knew, or ought to have known, that the toilet which the late Michael went and fell into . . . was unsafe, unsecured and unfit for human use, particularly by very young learners,” the papers read.
The Komape family are claiming R2-million in compensation for the grief they suffered, as well as R940 000 in damages because of “emotional trauma and shock”.
They are also claiming R153 000 for future sessions with a counsellor, R34 105 for the costs of Michael’s funeral and R21 349 in loss of earnings suffered by Rosina Komape because she could not work in the wake of her son’s death.
In responding papers, the department denies any wrongdoing. “[The] defendants bear no knowledge of the circumstances which caused Michael to fall into the toilet.
“However, it is denied that the structure could not support his weight,” the department’s papers state.
The department denies the toilet was unsafe or unfit for human use and that it was dilapidated. “Michael fell into a toilet during playtime. It was not foreseeable that any injury could occur. The incident can best be described as an accident,” it says.
Equal Education national organiser Luyolo Mazwembe disagreed. “It’s distressing to hear this from the department. What happened was not an accident, because pit latrines are simply not safe, especially for a sixyear-old. It is the department’s responsibility to provide good sanitation to schools.” The school is one of more than 10 000 that still use pit latrines.
Basic Education Department spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said pit latrines were a “reality” the government was getting to grips with. A school sanitation programme was started in 2013, with the aim of installing proper sanitation facilities at the more than 900 schools that had none at all. So far, 395 schools have had toilets built.