A family in the North West is reeling from heartbreak and demanding answers after their eight-year-old daughter died under mysterious circumstances at school last Friday.
The little girl’s 10-year-old sister is fighting for her life in the hospital.
The lifeless body of Ogone Sedupelele, a grade three pupil at GJ Podile Primary School in Mahikeng, was discovered by a parent who had come to collect their child’s report.
What she found instead was a scene no parent should ever witness: a child, cold and unresponsive, lying inside a classroom with no paramedics in sight.
Even more shocking, Ogone’s older sister, also a pupil at the school, had also fallen ill and was allegedly made to clean up her own vomit before being sent outside to “get fresh air”.
Moments later, her condition worsened. She was rushed to the hospital, where she remains in critical care.
According to the family, it is not clear when Ogone died, but the family believes it may have been two to three hours before information came through.
During that time, no ambulance was called, and no effort was made by the school to alert the family or seek emergency help.
More questions than answers
The school has suggested the children may have become sick after eating snacks from a nearby tuck shop, but for Ogone’s devastated parents, that explanation raises more questions than answers.
A family representative, Itumeleng Tau, said they need clarity.
“There are so many things that don’t add up. Our child was dead for hours, and the school said nothing. They didn’t call us or call for medical help, and that’s concerning,” he said.
Tau’s voice trembled with emotion as he recounted the painful thought that haunts the family.
“If parents hadn’t been invited to pick up reports that day, both of them [children] could have died while at the school.
Tau said how they learned about the death of their child was horrific.
The children’s mother, Boipelo Sedupelele, could not talk and kept crying hysterically while calling out loud her daughter’s name.
A parent who discovered the situation at the school, Nomonde Cindi, said it will take her a long time to recover.
“When I arrived , I found a teacher who then asked me if I knew a child who was lying on the floor,” she said.
School’s supervision of sick children questioned
The schoolteacher wanted her to identify the child so that she could call the child’s parents.
“I looked at the child; I removed the hat from her face, and she was not blinking,” Cindi said.
“I asked the teacher if it was possible for me to volunteer to look for the child’s parents and find the address.
“We looked around the area until I found her home. I found her uncle, who called the child’s mother,” she said.
Cindi questioned the school’s supervision of sick children.
“They gave attention to the one who was sitting outside; the one inside the classroom was not given the attention. The one who survived was told by the teacher to wipe her vomit from the floor.
“This has affected me because I saw everything, especially the one who died,” she said.
A team from the North West education department visited the family on Wednesday. Speaking on behalf of the team, Mphata Molokwane said the department will assist the family with burial costs.
“The department will investigate and make the outcome available for the public. The public must know what happened to the child,” said Molokwane.
“We have made commitments that we are going to ensure that we give a dignified send-off to the learner.”
