The Gauteng department of education recently released a media statement about the increasing number of deaths reported in schools. Within a short space of time 10 deaths have already been reported by the department with the latest separate incidents involving 2 learners.
A 17-year-old Grade 12 school girl from Oosrand Secondary School was allegedly assaulted by taxi passengers on Saturday, 8 February in Germiston. She reportedly jumped out of the moving taxing and died on the scene. Gauteng Education and Youth development MEC Panyaza Lesufi expressed his concerns and appealed to religious leaders to pray for Gauteng schools.
The teenager’s bereaved family was visited by the school principal and School Management Team (SMT) at Ramaphosa informal settlement to convey their condolences and offer the necessary support.
“Indeed, we will not get tired to seek necessary divine intervention and we are hopeful that spiritual leaders will guide us accordingly. Sadly, these two deaths bring us to about 10 deaths reported since we opened schools for the 2020 academic year”, stated Lesufi.
In a separate incident an 8-year-old school girl from Durban Deep Primary School also died on Saturday after drowning and being swept away by flash floods at Princess Informal settlement in Roodepoort.
The department has since dispatched officials from the Psycho Social Unit to render counseling services to both schools and the bereaved families.
