Enock’s mom wants justice

The mother of drowned Parktown Boys High School pupil Enock Mpianzi wants to see arrests for her son’s death.

“Justice is not only money, people think that justice is money – Enock was a human being, he has a right to live,” his mother Anto Mpianzi told EyeWitnessNews (EWN).

“We leave the child under people’s responsibility and we trusted them; all I want is for justice to do its job. I want accountability, I want some people to be arrested so that it is going to stop this thing of killing children,” she added.

The interview comes a year after the death of the Grade 8 pupil at an orientation camp. Mpianzi drowned during a water activity on the Crocodile River in the North West. This occurred while he was attending his school’s orientation camp at Nyati Bush and Riverbreak lodge.

The 13-year-old was last seen when a makeshift raft he and other boys were on overturned in the river, News24 reported.

Investigations into Mpianzi’s death found that the school, together with its teachers and the principal at the time, Malcolm Williams, were negligent in not having an accurate and correct roll-call list and that they should be held accountable.

News24 reported in October last year that Williams had been served with a dismissal notice from the Gauteng education department.

Mpianzi’s mom also told EWN that this festive season was very difficult for the family.

“It opened again our wounds, especially today, it is reminding me of the last time we were together when I took him to school and I remember the last moment we had together was at Parktown Boys,” she said.

“I didn’t know that day he was not going to come back to me; he went without saying goodbye to us.”

She added that even after the tragedy, there were people walking free and who got to tell their children that they love them, but that Enock was gone.

“If those kind of people are not punished, they will continue to do the same thing over and over.

“The situation that I am going through – I cannot accept it and see it happen to another parent. It is very painful,” she said.