LOOKING FOR ANSWERS

The mom of the Parktown Boys’ High teen who drowned while on a school orientation camp pours out her heart

- SIYA TSEWU

IT SHOULD have been the start of a bright new chapter – their youngest child off to a prestigious school where he’d grow and thrive, building the foundation for a promising future. But for Enoch Mpianzi, it was over before it even began.

The tragic circumstances surrounding the death of the 13-year-old Parktown Boys’ High School learner have united South Africans in horror and outrage.

How could the school only have realised he was missing the next day? How could the organisers allow a young boy without a life jacket on to a makeshift raft in a river swollen by rain?

The topic dominated social media and radio talk shows – but for one family, the furore only added to their grief. A dark cloud hangs over the home in Malvern, Johannesburg, where the Mpianzi family live – and where Enoch will never return.

His mom, Anto (45), is taking the tragedy especially hard. Her last-born was her be-all and end-all, she says. She even nicknamed him her “handbag” because they went everywhere together.

“He was my everything,” she says. “I had such high hopes for him – I wanted to see him grow up and fulfil all his dreams. He wanted to be a lawyer. Enoch was my best friend,” the heartbroken woman adds. “Now he’s gone.”

ANTO and her husband, Guy Intamba Ekila, moved to SA from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2001, fleeing the turmoil of their homeland. They set about carving a living for themselves in Joburg – Anto by selling Congolese food, Guy by buying and reselling cars.

They didn’t have much but it was enough to feed and clothe their sons, Yves (25), Sharack (21), Mordecai (18) and young Enoch. When the time came for Enoch to go to high school, his parents applied for fee exemption at Parktown Boys’ High.