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Mama, can you hear our plea?

Picture Credit: www.huffingtonpost.com
Picture Credit: www.huffingtonpost.com

A deaf schoolgirl sent her mother text messages pleading for help before she was engulfed in flames.

Katlego Diseko, 16, Bulelwa Koni, 18 and Emily Oageng, 22, pupils at the Leeudoringstad school for the deaf, all perished in a fire at the school's hostel on Monday.

Education portfolio committee chairwoman Boitumelo Moiloa said had there been sufficient emergency plans, the pupils' lives would have been saved.

Katlego sent her mother a heart-rending text message.

"I have the SMS that the girl sent to her mother asking for help. She said she was scared because there was a lot of smoke in the building and she was scared that she might die, it's unfortunate that girl is dead now," Moiloa said.

North West MEC for education Wendy Matsemela was caught in a lie when she assured the committee that the special school had all the emergency and security in place.

Matsemela blindly elaborated on the measures in place in the event of an emergency, but unbeknown to her the committee was a step ahead of her with the information.

Matsemela told the sitting that the school had two house mothers and a security company that only comes to work during school holidays.

But the committee corrected her, stating that there were no house mothers; instead, there were two teachers who worked as house mothers at night.

Moiloa said the teachers were not trained house mothers and that the school has no security or emergency measures in place.

"The school does not even have an evacuation plan, smoke detectors. We had our walk-about, we could actually see that the windows had burglar bars, that was a cause for concern on how children were going to evacuate that place," Moiloa said.

The MEC yesterday also revealed that given the nature of the tragedy and the fact that the pupils came from poor backgrounds, her department would negotiate a settlement with their parents.

Matsemela said her department would also cover the burial costs to the tune of R35000.

"We always try to pre-empt the legal suit, and the historical figure we have paid for the deceased learners is R200000," she said.

Matsemela said the matter of fires was never planned for by any normal human being. It was "critical to make a meaning of what was available".

tshehleb@sowetan.co.za

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