Drowning of 2 teens: GP Edu Dept to probe why teachers didn’t facilitate excursion

JOHANNESBURG - The Gauteng Education Department says its foremost action is to find out why no teachers facilitated a school excursion that saw two learners drown despite the trip being unauthorised.

On Monday, two boys aged 14 and 17 from Daveyton Skills School in Benoni died while attending a disciple camp in Centurion.

Their deaths mark the second incident since the tragic passing of Pretoria learner Latoya Temilton who also drowned under similar circumstances in January this year.

Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane lambasted the Daveyton Skills School for failing to inform his department about their trip that resulted in the deaths of the teenagers.

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It was revealed that all 90 students on the trip were under the supervision of one social worker.

Chiloane said the deaths were unwarranted given the fact that the trip was not given a go ahead.

In a stern manner the MEC said he would not hold back in dealing with those who are fingered in the report, which will be released by the independent law firm appointed to probe the tragedy.

“This is not supposed to have happened, it’s quite irresponsible for it to happen to an extent that no educators went. Clearly, something is amiss, but we don’t want to speculate what could’ve really happened. So, we want that report to guide us to say this is what happened.”

Chiloane added that the investigation into the deaths would be conducted quicker than in the case of Temilton.