The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has awarded damages to the Komape family, whose the five-year-old son Michael died when he fell and drowned in a pit toilet in Limpopo in 2014.
The incident happened at the Mahlodumela Primary School.
“It’s been a long road, but for the Komape family, at last I think there can be a sense of closure and a recognition by the court at least of the suffering that they have endured,” said Section 27’s former executive director Mark Heywood who took the fight for justice for the family to the SCA.
The lobby group said it hoped the ruling would bring some “semblance of closure for the family and restore their dignity for the manner in which Michael died and the treatment of the family by education authorities in the aftermath of his death.”
In 2018, a High Court judge dismissed the family’s case against the Department of Education.
Section27 appealed the dismissed damages claims, as well as the court’s refusal to grant a declaratory order.
The family was seeking a claim for damages for emotional trauma, as well as the second claim for grief suffered, constitutional damages and any future medical expenses for the family.
The Komape family was seeking R3 million from the state and further wanted the government to be compelled to provide decent, safe sanitation at school.
