A distraught father is pleading with school officials for answers after rushing from work following an emergency call, and finding his son dead.
“I found my child lying on the floor. When I asked what happened, nobody gave us answers,” said Paulos Magakwe.
He says he has repeatedly asked the school to tell him who his son, Neo, 10, was playing with, or what happened, but alleges that nobody will help him.
“I pleaded with the officials because we couldn’t pinpoint what happened to our son; nobody told us anything. We are arranging for funeral preparations,” he said.
Neo’s mother, Promise Mokgoatsane, said she had no words to describe how she felt.
She said she had received a call from the school saying they were coming to fetch her as something had happened to her child. At the school she found her son lying dead in a pool of blood.
“We found our son lying on the floor, severely injured from the head, chest and back. We are still trying to figure out how a goalpost fell on him.”
“When I arrived at school, the paramedics were already removing the oxygen mask and covering him with foil,” she said.
When she asked the principal and educators what had happened, there was no clear response. “I asked the educators and principal about the cause of death, and all they would tell me was that my child had got hurt, but they don’t know how,” she said.
Neo’s grandmother, Agnes Mokgoatsane, is angry about the many unanswered questions.
She said she was at home in Limpopo when she received the news and immediately made her way to Johannesburg.
“We were shocked to hear the news and had to leave everything and attend to the issue,” she said.
Neo’s uncle, Abram Makolane, said his nephew was a lovely, joyful child who loved soccer. “He was a big fan of Pirates. I think this is because his father also supported the team. They’d travel together to watch soccer — it was the only thing on his mind,” he said
He said even after school hours, he and his friends would play soccer to sharpen their skills.
“One thing my nephew is leaving me with is how much he loved me. I was with him on Monday morning before he went to school, not knowing I would be seeing him for the last time,” he said.
His grandfather, Johannes Magakwe, said whenever Neo would visit him in Limpopo, they’d sleep together on the same bed while playing with his phone.
“He didn’t want to sleep with anybody else but me. I will miss those days.”
Gauteng education MEC Matome Chiloane said the department had set up an independent investigation with a law firm to determine what had happened.
“The preliminary information we have is that the child was struck by a pole. The family wants more, and we are taking the necessary steps to ensure that they get closure,” he said.
He said the law firm will be introduced to the family on Monday, and the investigation will take two weeks.
TimesLIVE
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