Court orders GDE to fix school where pupil was electrocuted 5 years ago

Five years ago, pupils at the Geluksdal Secondary School in Brakpan were rocked by the news that one of their own had been electrocuted to death after coming into contact with a metal door frame.

Since the incident back in 2017, the Gauteng department of education has allegedly remained silent on the matter, according to Section 27, as the school infrastructure still remains unsafe to date.

“Despite it being more than five years since the learner passed away, the GDE has failed to fix the unsafe infrastructure at the school or even engage with stakeholders about plans to fix the infrastructure. While this inaction continues, learners remain at risk of injury or death while at school,” said Section 27 Spokesperson Julia Chaskalson.

“Because of the GDE’s failure to replace life-saving and statutorily required circuit breakers and earth leakage equipment that had been stolen from the school, the learner died of electrocution when they touched the metal doorframe of a mobile classroom in a thunderstorm.

ALSO READ: Hope slowly fading as vice-principal killer still at large 

“It is disappointing that education officials have remained unreachable about a case surrounding the safety of learners while at school. Longstanding infrastructure issues at the school including unsafe electrical equipment and lack of security resulted in the tragic death of a matric learner in January 2017.”

On Tuesday, the Johannesburg High Court finally forced the department of education to do something about the issue. It gave the department 15 days to say what it will do to fix infrastructure at the school to ensure pupils’ safety.

The judge Marcus Senyatsi directed that:

• The MEC and the school must urgently replace and repair circuit breakers, earth leakage and other electrical equipment at the school;
• Gauteng education officials in the works inspection department who did not report on the death of the learner be reprimanded;
• The roles and responsibilities of different officials within the department should be clear to make sure that electrical infrastructure was maintained;
• Details be given on how security would be improved to prevent repeated theft of life-saving electrical equipment; and
• Steps be taken to discipline officials who failed to take action after the unsafe infrastructure was reported.

The GDE is ordered to report on these points, among others, within 15 days. 

Judge Senyatsi stated: “I am in agreement 100% – there is a proper case in this case, the relief must be granted.

“When the theft of earth leakage and circuit breakers from Geluksdal Secondary were reported to district and provincial education officials, no action was taken.”

Section 27 has since called on education authorities, “especially Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi, to do the right thing and ensure that the unsafe infrastructure at Geluksdal Secondary School is fixed without delay.”