At the instruction of her teacher, five-year-old Lumka Mkhethwa stepped out of the classroom to wipe her nose. The next time she was seen was more than 24 hours later, when her body was pulled out of a sludge of faeces below a pit latrine toilet at her school in Bizana in the Eastern Cape.
Shockingly, it was only when the Grade R pupil failed to arrive for her lift home on Monday afternoon last week that the school became aware that she was missing.
The driver of her school transport alerted authorities.
Now questions are being asked about why Lumka's teacher at Luna Junior Primary School did not notice that she never returned to class.
"I am really hurt," her mother, Mandisa Mkhethwa, said this week. "When Lumka was not at school she was always with me. Whether I was doing washing or other chores, she was there."Just hours before her death, Lumka had spoken on the phone to her father, Vuyani Mkhethwa, who is a mineworker in Welkom in the Free State.
She had asked him to bring her sweets and fruit when he came home for Easter.
"The last time I saw her was on January 2 when I was leaving for work. When I left she accompanied me to the taxi stop with her mother and younger brother. But we always spoke over the phone, and even on the morning of the Monday when she went missing, we spoke," Vuyani said.
When he received news later that day that his daughter was missing, he was frantic.
"That night I did not sleep, trying to call them to find out any update. The following day I was told that my baby is gone. "I would like to ask the teacher so many questions. Other kids say that the teacher gave her a tissue to go outside and clear her nose, and she never came back. If this is true, how did she not notice that she never came back?"
Mkhethwa described Lumka as a helpful little girl who loved to sing.
"I had high hopes for her because she was brilliant at a very young age and I had started investing money for her and her brother's future studies. I wanted her to study whatever she wanted when she got older. Maybe she would have chosen music."
The grieving father said his daughter's death could have been avoided if the school's toilets had been up to standard.Lumka's death comes four years after another five-year-old, Michael Komape, died in similar circumstances after falling into a dilapidated pit latrine at Mahlodumela Primary in Chebeng, Limpopo.
Advocacy group Section 27 sued the government for damages on behalf of the Komape family. Judgment was reserved in February.
When the Sunday Times visited the Mkhethwa home, the school's principal, Nkosiphendule Magibela, was calling on the family. He apologised on behalf of the school and said an investigator had taken statements from him and Lumka's teachers.
This week Eastern Cape education MEC Mandla Makupula pledged to pay for the education of Lumka's two-year-old brother, Masande, at a school of the family's choice.
But this is cold comfort for Lumka's parents. "If he pays my son's uniform and full school fees until he is in matric, I will be very happy. But it won't bring my daughter back."Eastern Cape education department spokesman Mali Mtima confirmed that a teacher who was standing in for Lumka's Grade R teacher while she was attending school governing body elections had given the girl a tissue and asked her to go outside to wipe her nose.
"She was not going to the toilet as they are not allowed to visit the toilet alone."
Asked whether any action would be taken against the teacher, Mtima said the department was awaiting the outcome of the investigation.
He confirmed that a site for the construction of new toilets had been identified and that a contractor had been appointed.
The Eastern Cape education department is in a court battle with Equal Education in the High Court in Bhisho. The lobby group is seeking a review of a clause in the Minimum Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure that stipulates that the department is only responsible for fixing schools to the extent that other entities, such as Eskom and public works, make resources available. Judgment has been reserved.
"We ask for political will to end this crisis," said Eastern Cape Equal Education head Amanda Rinquest. "We ask for ... eradication of all pit latrine toilets."..