Enock Mpianzi | Five damning revelations from the forensic report

A forensic report into the death of Enock Mpianzi was released on Wednesday and read out at Parktown Boys' High School by investigator Peter Harris, of Harris Nupen Molebatsi Attorneys. 

The grade 8 pupil was attending an orientation camp with the school at the Nyati Bush and Riverbreak lodge in Brits, North West, in January when the incident occurred.

Here are five damning facts from the investigation: 

Negligence

The Parktown Boys' High principal, five teachers and the Nyati Bush and Riverbreak lodge were found to have been negligent in not ensuring the safety of the pupils. The lodge's manager, Anton Knoetze, said they had 12 life jackets when there were 204 participants at the camp.

He said these were not issued because they were only meant for water tubing activities, and not rafting.

“It would appear that the preparations, which included all of the safety measures that should have taken place and the rigorous planning that should go into a grade 8 camp, really did not take place at all.”

The investigation found that the pupils were asked to construct a makeshift raft using materials such as wood. The raft Mpianzi was on capsized in strong currents.

More deaths 

The investigators probed media reports which said more deaths had taken place at the lodge in previous years. It recommended further investigations be conducted into the following incidents:

• In 1999 North View School pupil Portia Sowela drowned;
• In 2002 Malvern High School pupil Thuso Moalusi drowned in the river; 
• In 2009 Laerskool Welgedag pupil Tumi Mokowane drowned in a pool and;
• In 2010 Adamantia High School pupil Mellony Sias drowned in the river. 

Teachers were not present 

The school was found to have been in contravention of its policies which state that teachers must be present at camp activities.

No roll-call

The teachers did not use a list to identify which pupils were present at camp, which delayed the discovery that Mpianzi was missing by 18 hours, the report found.

“We find that there is negligence on the part of the school for not having [held a] roll-call and that the educators should be held accountable. If the correct roll-call list had been used, they would have realised 18 hours earlier that a boy was missing.”

Camp not authorised by the department 

Partktown Boys' High proceeded with the camp despite it not being authorised by the Gauteng department of education. The reason for this, according to the report, was the application had not been attended to by the department's junior officials and therefore not processed. The officials were also found to have been negligent.