Pit toilet victim’s mom: ‘I may have closure, but I’ll never forgive them’

This week saw a close in a traumatic five-year long chapter for the family of Michael Komape.

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein on Wednesday awarded the Komape family R1.4 million for emotional shock and grief suffered as a result of then five-year-old Michael’s death.

In a full bench judgment read out by Judge Lorimer Leach, the SCA questioned why Education Minister Angie Motshekga and the Limpopo department of education had decided to oppose the Komapes and Section27’s appeal against a high court ruling, despite having conceded during the main trial that the Komapes had suffered as a result of their son’s death.

The family’s initial claim for constitutional damages of R3 million was dismissed by the High Court in Limpopo last year.

But the victory remains bittersweet.

Michael Komape. Picture: Supplied

The family, disillusioned with the legal system following their initial stumble in the Limpopo division of the high court which first saw their claim for damages denied, and the lack of any remorse from those into whose care they had entrusted Michael on the day of his death, say they can now try to move forward.

“It was a massive relief,” Komape’s eldest sister, Lydia, said in response to the SCA’s ruling. “Even though we can’t get Michael back, we are pleased the court has finally found in our favour regarding the way we were treated.

“Now we can start healing and finally carry on with our lives.”

Describing the circumstances of Michael Komape’s death as gruesome and the government’s response as callous would both be severe understatements.

According to the testimony of the pathologist, who conducted the post-mortem on Michael after he drowned in a pit toilet at the Mahlodumela Primary School in January 2014, he died from a lack of oxygen caused by him “inhaling foreign substances”.

James Komape and his daughter Johanna, who is the same age her brother Michael was when he drowned in a pit latrine more than five years ago, 18 December 2019. Picture: Earl Coetzee

A few weeks before the ruling, James Komape’s voice cracked as he described to The Citizen the moment he first heard of his son’s death.

He had been visiting the homestead of their local induna, in order to acquire land for starting a small library for the children of Chebeng Village.

“I was happy, because my meeting went well. They gave me the land.

“On my way back, I got a phone call from my wife and the principal telling me that Michael is dead. He has fallen into a toilet. That was the most painful thing I could possibly hear. I was about 10 kilometres from the school. I ran all the way to the school.”

Nothing could have prepared him for what he would find on his arrival.

“When I arrived at the school. I went to the toilet. I couldn’t even recognise the toilets because there was too much grass. When I got there, I saw the rotten toilets and when I looked inside I saw Michael’s hand.

“I asked them why they didn’t pull him out. They said they couldn’t as he was already dead. I asked them how they knew he was dead, and they said it was because he had been in there for hours.”

The events immediately following would set the tone for the next five years.

It would take several more hours before his son’s lifeless body was removed from the pit toilet. During this time school officials would force him and a friend to delete pictures they had taken of the scene as evidence, and they were threatened with prosecution.

Speaking to The Citizen, Michael’s mother, Rosina, who had fainted on seeing her son’s lifeless hand sticking out of the contents of the pit, said she could never forgive the education department.

“Even if they came now, I wouldn’t forgive them, because in all these years we have never received an apology. No one has taken any responsibility,” she said. – earlc@citizen.co.za

Who was Michael Komape?

• “He was a boy who liked books,” his father said with a rueful smile.
• “Sometimes I would be surprised when the other children would be playing outside and he said he wanted to read instead.”
• The “bookish” five-year-old had two younger siblings, the youngest Johanna now being the same age her brother was when he died.
• His brother Moses was in the same school and, according to his parents, was most affected by Michael’s death.
• “Michael used to take care of Moses, and he still gets upset when the other children come to the house and they speak about Michael,” his father explained.
• He also had two older siblings, Lydia and Lucas.

‘The money was there to fix broken toilets’

In November 2017, the High Court in Limpopo heard testimony that there was no shortage of funds to fix broken and dilapidated toilets in the province. The evidence was given by budget analyst Daniel McLaren, testifying in the Komape’s and Section27’s case against the department. The court also heard of rampant financial mismanagement, resulting in the Limpopo department of basic education being placed under Section 100 administration in terms of the constitution in 2011. McLaren worked for Section27, the public interest law firm representing the Komape family. He went through the annual reports of the provincial basic education department, describing budgetary underspending of R960 million in the 2013 financial year, and R560 million in 2014, with a further R994 million in irregular expenditure in 2014 – most of which was related to tender irregularities. Evidence from sanitation engineer David Still suggested that existing toilets could be refurbished for about R2,500 each – a total cost of R100 million, which was well within the scope of the department’s historical underspend. – Groundup.org.za

The current situation

• “Some of the other schools in our village now have better toilets, but it cost my son’s life for the department to act,” said James Komape.
• But the country’s pit toilet situation was far from resolved.
• According to Equal Education, there are currently 6,089 schools with plain pit latrines on the premises. Of those schools, 3,710 have only pit latrines with no alternatives.
• The provincial breakdown is: Eastern Cape: 1,587; Free State: 127; Gauteng, Northern Cape and Western Cape: 0; KwaZulu-Natal: 1,272; Limpopo: 472; Mpumalanga: 107; North West: 145.
• Section27 and Equal Education look set to have another court battle, since the Limpopo education department has yet to complete an ordered audit into pit latrines at schools.
• The replacement of pit latrines at all schools in SA has been costed at nearly R10 billion by Minister Angie Motshekga.

Settlement details

• The SCA ordered compensation for emotional shock and grief, and ordered the minister of basic education and MEC for education in Limpopo to pay the following amounts:
• R350,000 to each of Michael’s parents.
• R200,000 to each of his elder siblings
• R100,000 for each of the minor children.
• They must also pay R6,000 toward the counselling expenses of each person.

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