Johannesburg - The Gauteng Department of Education has warned schools who have camps and activities involving water to get permission directly from head office or face severe punishment.
“We know that there are schools that have already organised and paid for their trips, but we need to be informed,” said spokesperson Steve Mabona.
“We sent out a communique and we expect the schools to adhere to it. If they go without permission, they will be charged.”
The warning follows the death of Parktown Boys’ High pupil Enoch Mpianzi. The teenager died on the first day of the school’s Grade 8 orientation camp at Nyathi Bush and River Break lodge near Brits in the North West.
Enoch drowned while participating in a water activity at the camp last Wednesday.
His body was discovered last Friday after a search which started on Thursday afternoon.
Yesterday, Gauteng MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi emphasised that it was of utmost importance that schools get approval directly from head office.
Lesufi said he was given specific instructions by Premier David Makhura to ensure proper processes are followed when schools go out on camps and activities involving water.
“I want to assure the parents and all stakeholders within the education fraternity that we have been asked by the premier to attend to three areas immediately,” said Lesufi.
“All the indemnity forms need to be appropriately revised and explained and where there is confusion, a guiding document must be formulated.
“The premier is of the view that these indemnity forms are used to exonerate those who don’t execute their mandate. As a department, we have already taken the decision that all water-related trips should get authorisation immediately from head office and no longer at school or district level.
“It needs to come directly to the head office. This, we believe, will assist us to ensure that we protect our learners. We have a communique to our schools that the current camps or arrangements that have been made by schools need to be revisited to be sure that all relevant approval be made.”
The alleged gross negligence in Enoch’s death has also led to a slew of suspensions, including that of Parktown Boys’ High School principal Malcolm Williams and Gauteng education officials.
Lesufi did not mince his words in stating that heads would roll for Enoch’s death, asserting that the trip to Nyati was also “unauthorised”.
“We have enquired about the roles of all persons who were in a line of authority and have responsibilities to care for and support our learners at school,” said Lesufi.
“We have thus concluded that the principal of the school is the delegated authority with the responsibility of the safety of our learners in schools and thus we have taken the decision to immediately suspend the principal of Parktown Boys and to serve him with a suspension letter for the investigation to proceed without hindrance.”
District officials who handled the school’s application had a case to answer. “The laws are clear that for you to embark on a trip you have to apply for permission three months in advance before you can embark on a trip. The school made an application on November 19, 2019 which fell outside the required time limit for an application.
“Regardless, we believe the district officials that handled this kind of communique should have either notified the school or they should have indicated to the head office whether they should give permission for this trip to go ahead.
“We have directed that all the officials at the district who handled the file of application for the trip, be served with letters of immediate suspension as investigations are carried out.”
Lesufi added that Parktown Boys school governing body (SGB) would not escape scrutiny.
“We’ll be guided by parents of the school on the kind of action we should take or not take. You will see with all these reports that it is very important that we finalise this report as quickly as possible so that South Africans can know where we stand with this investigation.
“This also affects all the teachers that went on this trip. The HOD had to determine of those teachers, how many of them were directly appointed by the SGB and how many were directly appointed by the department .
“We want to act but we don’t want to charge the teachers as a collective. We want to charge the teachers individually on the basis of the roles that were assigned to them and whether those assignments were appropriately or correctly executed.”
Lesufi said the department has appointed an independent forensic law firm, Harris Nupen Molebatsi Attorneys, to investigate.
“The investigation has been conducted with urgency, however due to the traumatic nature of this incident, no undue pressure will be placed on any of the witnesses. The scope is sufficiently wide and far-reaching so that we can comprehend the circumstances surrounding the death of Enoch.
“No one is immune from investigation, the school, the school governing body, the school management district and the department will be scrutinised.”
A parent’s meeting was held yesterday with education officials at the Linder Auditorium at Wits University.
Shortly after the gathering began, the media were asked to leave after a number of parents objected to their presence.
Several disgruntled parents, whose children previously attended the school, also went to the meeting in a bid to have their grievances heard.
Many of their issues related to their children experiencing abuse and sexual molestation by staff at the school.