Pretoria - The Gauteng Department of Education will dispatch its psycho-social unit to Hoërskool Garsfontein, in Pretoria east, to give counselling to traumatised learners and teachers following a grisly discovery of a learner’s dead body on the school’s rugby field on Tuesday morning.
The dead girl has been identified as a Grade 10 learner and it was still unclear how her body came to be on school premises during the holidays.
Department MEC Matome Chiloane, who visited the school yesterday, expressed condolences to the bereaved family and pledged to also give support to learners and teachers.
Chiloane said information was still sketchy regarding the circumstances that led to the death of the learner.
He expressed hope that the police would act speedily by collating a post-mortem report that would guide the nature of the case at hand.
“As a department, we will be sending through our psycho-social unit to support the school, the learners and educators. We know that these incidents stay for a very long time with a child. The fact that a pupil was found on a sports field might even mean others wouldn’t want to go there.”
He said it was unfortunate that children were forced to deal with such incidents and losses where they should be learning.
Overwhelmed with grief, one of the dead girl’s relatives at the scene reportedly said the girl left the house around midnight, but didn’t disclose reasons for her departure from home.
Contacted for comment, police said an inquest docket was opened to probe circumstances around the incident.
SAPS spokesperson, Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said: “The Department of Education has already released a statement on the matter. The police can for now confirm that an inquest docket is opened for further investigations.”
Chiloane said the department would also extend its support to the family, “to see what else can we do in terms of the psycho-social support”.
“I have always said it is one child too many. We can’t afford to lose kids. It really weighs on us as a department, especially now. We might not know the circumstances. I really hope there is no foul play,” he said.
Department spokesperson Steve Mabona said the shocking discovery was made by the school’s security, who found a corpse on the school’s rugby field yesterday morning.
Chiloane said: “What is unclear at this stage is how the dead body of the girl learner landed in the school, especially since schools are on recess and there are no learners at school. We call upon police to urgently apprehend the perpetrators. We also extend our sincerest condolences to the family and the school community at large.”
Pretoria News