Minute by minute: how Keamohetswe Seboko drowned in school pool

At the beginning of the year, the Gauteng education department was hit by a flood of traumatic events — bullying, rape, brutal attacks, killings and drownings.

Keamohetswe Seboko was one of those affected. The 13-year-old pupil died while swimming at Laerskool Bekker, Magaliesburg.  

This is a timeline of what happened.

According to a forensic report compiled by law firm Ndobela Lamola Incorporated, analysis of video footage of January 15, starting from 3pm, revealed what happened. The report was handed to the boy's family last week.

At 3pm, the learners were swimming, as per the educators’ statements.

Between 2.58pm and 3.39pm, boys finished their swimming session and girls entered the pool area with an adult, Linda Jordaan, a teacher at the school.

“According to evidence gathered during the investigation, about 70 boys were swimming in the school’s pool at the same time,” the report said.

The girl’s swimming session lasted about 25 minutes. During the session, a girl told Jordaan there was a boy inside the pool, and she responded by looking around, but she did not see anything.

The pupils evacuated the pool at about 4.35pm at the instruction of Jordaan, who told them their session had come to an end. The pupil sounded the alarm again and told Jordaan that she had seen a boy in the water.

A search began and lasted for about an hour. Four adults dived into the water to search.

Arie Esterhuizen and Johannes Kotze, both teachers, went back to the pool with Jordaan and Jean-Meria Liebetrau. Upon inspection they could not see if there was anyone in the pool. According to Kotze, the water was not as clear as when the boys started swimming.  

According to the report, Jordaan then instructed a pupil to dive into the pool to assess whether it was possible to see anyone under the water in its state.  

“Esterhuizen went to his girlfriend’s room, where he changed into shorts as he was wearing jeans, and thereafter dived into the pool and discovered Kamo’s body.

“Esterhuizen attempted to resuscitate Seboko through cardiopulmonary resuscitation but could feel no pulse in his body,” the report found.

At or about 4.51pm, the principal, Willy Potgieter, was called from his office and arrived at the swimming pool. Seboko’s body was  covered with a towel.

At or about 5.05pm the principal went to his office to call the police. When he could not get hold of the Magaliesburg police station he called inspector Michael Ellies directly on his mobile phone.

Emergency services were dispatched to the premises. At around 5.55pm, Seboko's parents were informed of the tragic incident.

'Gross dishonesty and negligence'

The report found that Jordaan’s statement was inconsistent with the video footage, and was exactly 31 minutes ahead of the video footage time stamp

“Her statement has been tailored with the sole purpose of deceiving the outcome of the investigation.”  

It was recommended that she be placed on precautionary suspension and a disciplinary hearing be held immediately.  

“We recommend that Ms Jordaan be charged with, among other things, failure to exercise reasonable care after she was told more than once there was a boy under the water, failure to exercise reasonable care when she instructed a pupil to go into the pool or failed to stop him from going into the pool after a report that a pupil is lying at the bottom of the pool, and gross dishonesty,” said the report.  

Like Jordaan, the other teacher, Kotze, gave an inconsistent statement which was 31 minutes ahead of the video stamp.  

“We find that Mr Kotze’s statement has been tailored with the sole purpose of deceiving the outcome of the investigation. We find that based on Mr Kotze’s inconsistency. A possibility exists that the boys could have been swimming without adult supervision,” said the report.

“Precautionary suspension and disciplinary action is recommended due to his gross dishonesty and negligence.”

All the other teachers were found to have given misleading statements which were inconsistent with the CCTV footage. The same recommendations were made for them.  

“Based on the post-mortem report, we find the death of Seboko could have been a case of accidental drowning. We found no evidence to substantiate or refute the possibility of murder,” said the report.  

“We find no evidence to substantiate or refute the allegation that Kamo’s death was a result of an initiation activity as defined by the Schools Act, or an act of bullying.” 

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