Grade 8 Parktown Boys’ High Student Allegedly Recalls What He Happened At The Camp #EnochMpianzi #ParktownBoysCamp. However, the student was reportedly ignored by the camp facilitators.
A grade 8 learner at Parktown Boys High School allegedly kept on telling camp facilitators that the last time he saw the late Enoch Mpianzi was at the river, where he was having a difficult time swimming, he also told allegedly told them that he was missing. However, the student was reportedly ignored by the camp facilitators. The learner’s side of the story was narrated on Eusebius McKaiser’s show on Wednesday.
The young boy recalled the moments that led to the passing away of Enoch Mpianzi due a water activity at the Nyati Bush and River Break lodge in North West. The learner says him and his other friend got to bond with Enoch Mpianzi before they got on the bus heading to the camp. They also got the chance to meet Enoch Mpianzi’s father. The boy says there was no roll call before they got on to the bus and before starting they first activity. Their first activity after lunch into groups were to build stretchers.
The learner says, “I was in the same group as Enoch. We were taken to a rugby field where we were given about four thick wooden poles and a few thinner poles and instructed to build a stretcher. We struggled tying the materials together and some poles kept on breaking. One of the activity facilitator’s told us to be more innovative and to even use our shoelaces to tie the poles together.” They were running while carrying the stretchers, as they thought of an emergency situation. They then went to the river with their stretchers, there were no educators on site, it was only the camp facilitators and school prefects.
Enoch Mpianzi was part of the students that could swim and were given the river tasks. “No life vests were issued to any of us. The school also had not asked us to bring life vest to the camp,” says the grade 8 learner. One of the learners had to act as an injured person and was meant to go down the river to the checkpoint. Swimming tubes were put on the stretchers. “…no safety vest were issued to us. The river tides were strong. I less than two minutes in the water, the stretcher capsized. It came loose and we all scrambled for things to hang on to,” says the learner.
Some of the learners were holding onto the rubber tube at the time when their raft loosened. zThe learners used one arm to hold onto the tube and the other to paddle. The student tried to help Enoch, who couldn’t get a hold of the rubber tuber. The boy saw Enoch having a hard time, thereby grabbing a pole and tried to hand it over to Enoch but they were far apart. The learners screamed for assistance but there were no adults seen, the learner recalls. He couldn’t see the 13-year-old after they were swept via the river the river bend. When the person who made the roll call called out the names, he apparently thought that Enoch Mpianzi didn’t come. The student told him that he was there and had a hard time at the river.
The roll call individual then said there were groups where the numbers were increased and that Enoch Mpianzi might have joined one of the groups. He states that attention wasn’t paid towards him when told them about the 13-year-old suffering in the river. Their next task was cook chicken for supper. The learner and another fellow colleague went to the camp facilitator to inform but were harshly dismissed.
The student says he couldn’t sleep on the night of the event. The next morning after activities, a roll call was done. The educator thought Enoch Mpianzi didn’t come to the camp, the boys thus told him that he came and they last saw him at the water. One of the camp facilitators took a life jacket and went searching for the 13-year-old. The camp tasks were still being done even though the young man was being searched for. On Friday when the boys got to school they were spoken to by the headmaster, Malcolm Williams. “He emphasised that we should not speak to anyone,” says the learner. He then found out later on that Enoch Mpianzi had passed away.
by Alexandra Ramaite
