HIGH COURT
KARYN MAUGHAN: Ruling on pit-latrine death a blow for other poor victims of state abuse
Judge did not want to order payout that could be seen as punishment for wrong government caused family
Five-year-old Michael Komape’s horrific death by drowning in human faeces in a school pit latrine will cost the state R147,372.62 — a fraction of the money the government spent in fighting his family’s constitutional damages claim. The amount seems paltry compared with the horror of how the little boy died, swallowing excrement and struggling to breathe. It seems tiny after the evidence of Michael’s mother, Rosina, who described how she fainted after seeing her son’s hand sticking out of the waste at the bottom of the pit. It is arguably infuriating, given the way in which the Mahlodumela Lower Primary School and the Limpopo education department treated Michael’s family after his death. As Equal Education noted in argument filed at the high court: "At no point did they accept responsibility for Michael’s death. At no point did they acknowledge the horror of what they had allowed to happen. The family could not process their grief or move on with their lives whilst the departments an...
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