Section27 is adding its voice to a pending court application to ensure safe infrastructure at Gauteng schools after the death of a learner in 2017.

A Saturday Star report says it is asking to be admitted as a friend of the court in a Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) application, following the incident where a learner was electrocuted and died at school.

The incident happened because circuit breakers, earth leakage and other electrical equipment had been repeatedly stolen, which made the school environment unsafe.

The matric learner died in January 2017 in a mobile classroom at the Geluksdal Secondary School in Brakpan after she touched a metal door frame during a storm and was electrocuted.

Julia Chaskalson of Section27 said while the incident occurred more than four years ago, the Gauteng Department of Education did not confirm that it had addressed the unsafe infrastructure at the school.

Chaskalson said provincial departments should remedy the situation timeously so catastrophes never occurred again.

‘The relevant departments must be proactive and comply with their duties to prevent injuries and deaths due to unsafe infrastructure at all schools, and not only in high-profile cases reported on in the media.’

Section27 will highlight the pattern of neglect for learner safety, the prevalence of unsafe school infrastructure, and an absence of accountability by public officials for tragedies that have happened due to unsafe school infrastructure across the country.

It will, however, not represent the dead learner’s family.

Full Saturday Star report