To
Portfolio Committee on Basic Education
From
Lumka ka M'Belle
Subject
DEATH OF A CHILD AT SCHOOL - 17 YEARS AGO , NO ANSWERS
Date
23 January 2020 7:29 p.m.
Dear Portfolio Committee on Basic Education,

My child died at school playing rugby, the department of education to date still refuses to accept liability for this death and I am not provided with answers why my child died. He has earlier (less than 2 weeks) sustained a concussion, and the doctors had declared him unfit to play any contact sport for a recuperative time of not less than 6 months, until seen by a doctor.

The school/coach took my child, a border and a matriculant, on a school day, to go and play rugby in Johannesburg from Potchefstroom. He sustained another injury and he died. As a parent, I was never informed of the first injury, and secondly I had placed him in a boarding school I expected my permission to be sought, which was not.

When the child was airlifted to Milpark, the school did not bother to inform me. In fact the match continued as if nothing had happened. I only got a call late in the evening from a complete stranger telling me that my son was lying in hospital in a critical condition. I only managed to go to the hospital the following day where I was told that the machines were to be switched off because he was brain dead. He died a day later.

To date I have not been provided with any details about this. The Public protector issued a report in 2017 and the department refused categorically to comply with the findings therein. This accident happened in 2002 I cannot find closure. This affected my only remaining child who since passed away in 2009 from depression.

I am pleading for your intervention in this matter,