Pupil electrocuted, five years on dodgy wiring unfixed. Now GDE has 15 days

The Johannesburg high court has given the Gauteng education department 15 days to present a report on how it will fix unsafe infrastructure at Geluksdal Secondary School, in Brakpan, east of Johannesburg, where a pupil died after she was electrocuted in 2017.

The case was brought by the parents of pupil Maubrey Mahudu. They are demanding that the school infrastructure be repaired, replaced and properly secured so that a similar tragedy never happens again.

Maubrey was electrocuted when she touched the metal door frame of a mobile classroom during a thunderstorm. The department had failed to timeously replace life-saving, statutorily required circuit breakers and earth leakage equipment that had been stolen from the school.

The court ordered the department to replace and repair circuit breakers, earth leakage and other electrical equipment at the school. It also ordered the department to reprimand officials within the works inspection department who did not report on the death of the pupil in 2017.

It said there should be clarification of roles and responsibilities of different officials within the department to ensure that electrical infrastructure maintenance is undertaken.

The improvement of security also came under the spotlight. The court said the department needed to prevent repeated theft of life-saving electrical equipment.

The court also said the department must discipline officials who failed to take action after the unsafe infrastructure was reported.

Education lobby group Section27 has called on education MEC Panyaza Lesufi and the Gauteng education department to fix electrical equipment and security infrastructure at the school.

In a statement, Section27 said it welcomed the relief granted by judge Senyatsi and intended to monitor the infrastructure problems at the school to ensure they were resolved speedily to prevent further violations of pupils’ rights.

“Throughout the litigation proceedings, government officials have remained silent and have not engaged on this matter. It is disappointing that education officials have remained unreachable about a case surrounding the safety of learners while at school,” Section27 said in a statement.

It said long-standing infrastructure issues at the school including unsafe electrical equipment and lack of security resulted in the pupil’s death.

According to Section27, despite it being more than five years since the pupil died, the GDE has failed to fix the unsafe infrastructure at the school or even engage with stakeholders about plans to fix it.

“While this inaction continues, learners remain at risk of injury or death while at school. This relief is important because it forces the GDE to urgently fix the unsafe infrastructure at the school and report on the progress made,” it said.

Section27 intervened as a friend of the court, to provide the court with information about the history of unsafe school infrastructure. It spoke of the need for better security at schools to prevent life-saving equipment such as earth leakage and circuit breakers from being stolen and the responsibilities of education officials to ensure that pupils are safe at school.

It has been involved in numerous cases of injuries or deaths of pupils due to unsafe infrastructure and said it remained committed to fighting for all schools — and especially ones in socio-economically disadvantaged areas — to have access to safe and decent infrastructure.

According to Section27, when the theft of earth leakage and circuit breakers from Geluksdal Secondary was reported to district and provincial education officials, no action was taken.

“This order sets an important precedent surrounding the accountability of education officials responsible for ensuring school infrastructure is safe. It also demonstrates the importance of having a safe learning environment — which includes safe electrical equipment and security — to protect the rights of learners,” Section27 said.

The Gauteng department of education on Tuesday indicated it still needed to study the judgment.