‘THERE WAS NO ADULT IN SIGHT'

The education department comes down hard on Parktown Boys’ High after shocking claims emerge in the Enock Mpianzi tragedy

- SIYA TSEWU

ITS official website describes it as one of the oldest schools in Johannesburg, an institution “consistently rated as among the best performing schools in South Africa as well as in Africa”.

But after the Enock Mpianzi tragedy, it is a school in crisis. Allegations of lies, cover-ups and instructions for silence have shrouded Parktown Boys’ High in a cloud of controversy that shows no sign of lifting.

This is by no means the only scandal to have hit the school: in 2018, assistant water polo coach Collan Rex was jailed for 23 years on 144 charges of sexual assault involving 17 boys.

Now, as the fallout continues unabated, there are even calls for the century-old school to close its doors.

What happened on the Crocodile River at the start of the new school year is now the subject of a high-level investigation by the Gauteng department of education (GDE), which has appointed an independent law firm to probe what happened on that ill-fated orientation camp.

“It would appear during the water activity something went horribly wrong,” Gauteng MEC Panyaza Lesufisaid in a statement.

Of that there is no doubt. A harrowing account from one of the boys on camp with Enock tells of chaos and panic during an exercise at the Nyati Bush and River break near Brits in the North West that ill-fated January day.

“I felt like I was going to die,” Lizo*, who was on Enock’s team, told Radio 702.

He said boys had been instructed to build a stretcher that had to be transported on a section of the river – flowing fast from recent rains – as a makeshift raft. None of the children were given life vests, he claimed.

Their raft came apart in the strong current, and Lizo saw Enock struggling in the water.