Picture for illustration purposes.
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.
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“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 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.”
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