Emotional send off for Enock Mpianzi

It was a sad and emotional day as mourners gathered at Kensington Secondary School in Johannesburg to bid farewell to 13-year-old Enock Mpianzi.

The Parktown Boys’ High School Grade 8 pupil drowned in the Crocodile River early last month during a school camp at the Nyati Riverbreak and Resort in the North West.

Mpianzi’s death brought into sharp focus the lack of safety measures at adventure camps, which are not regulated.

EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi and Gauteng Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko attended the funeral.

Ndlozi said the greatest tragedy that can befall a community was the loss of a child.

“When a child is lost, it is the greatest condemnation to the rest of us because it means that as a people, we are negligent. The greatest pain that eats a parent up under those conditions of such a loss, is precisely to try and blame themselves that perhaps I did not put in good care, that maybe I could’ve done better.

“So when a child is lost at the age of 13, it is a sign of a community that has been caught irresponsible and negligent. This family cannot take the blame,” said Ndlozi.

Ndlozi criticised the issue of having private schools, he referred to Parktown Boys being a better school and yet “children die in the better schools”.

Mpianzi’s death has brought loud cries for justice, which were echoed by Enock’s brothers, who expressed anger and shock that he had died while in the care of school staff.

“Sending him to school was not a game we were playing with his life,” Yves Kadilo said in his tribute to his brother.

Mazibuko said that there was lack of accountability in the country. She said that Mpianzi’s story had caused a necessary storm in South Africa.

“We have to remember all the boys that are in boys’ school in which initiation cultures are abusive and negligent,” said Mazibuko.

She said that the Gauteng education department would review its policies governing pupils’ safety.

Last week, Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said teachers involved in the outing would be charged individually for negligence, based on the outcome of an investigation. All the district officials who handled the application of the school’s outing would be suspended because the trip was unauthorised.

Lesufi suspended the school’s principal, Malcolm Williams, last week.

He vowed that the family would receive a full report after the investigation into Mpianzi’s death, adding that the recommendations made in the report would be “implemented without fail”.

During the funeral service, the teenager’s family described him as a humble and obedient boy, who had many hopes and dreams.

“He was a remarkable child. Even in his death, he has left a mark,” said his father Guy Itamba.

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