Pit-toilet tragedy still haunts child’s father
Dad grieves for six-year-old who died at school
ROSINA Komape fears the anguish she has suffered since her six-year-old son’s death in a school pit latrine more than two years ago will never fade away.
She and her husband James are reminded almost daily about the morning of January 20 2014, when Michael Komape drowned after the corrugated-iron toilet at Mahlodumela Lower Primary School in Limpopo collapsed.
“We had made him for a purpose, and if he was still alive right now we wouldn’t be going through all of this,” said Rosina.
The Komapes spoke about the incident for the first time this week since suing the education department for R3.1-million a year ago.
Speaking through legal representatives and nongovernmental organisation Section27, the couple said it was impossible to forget what happened. “They keep talking, the neighbours, and this is why this pain will never go away,” said Rosina. Because their case has not yet been heard, their pain is compounded. “I never thought it would take this many years and it’s killing my family,” said RAMSHACKLE: Moletshi Crèche, which Michael Komape used to attend. Children at the crèche use buckets in a shack to relieve themselves James. “I can see that it has changed me, and it has changed my family too.”
Section27 attorney Kate Paterson said delays in bringing the case to court appeared to have been resolved and the hearing should be held in the first half of next year.
Worryingly, the shoddy infrastructure that resulted in Michael’s death is not uncommon. The Department of Basic Education says 4 986 schools have only pit latrines and 68 have no sanitation facilities.
At Lugxogxo Junior Secondary in Mthatha, close to 300 ‘IT HAS CHANGED ME’: James Komape, father of six-year-old Michael Komape pupils share a single working toilet. The principal is terrified a pupil could fall in, according to a recent report by Equal Education. “One ‘toilet’ at this school is literally a hole in the ground,” says the report, released to the Sunday Times.
“The ratio of toilets to pupils is 1:49. The ratio of working toilets to pupils is 1:294.” CRACKING IT: Nombulelo Bhede is one of Pholela High’s matrics writing his final exams
I never thought it would take this many years and it’s killing my family