Youngster drowns on school outing
2010-12-02
Lise Beyers
A SCHOOL farewell function for Grade sevens ended in tragedy on Tuesday, when a learner drowned. The outing was held for school leavers of Mary Help of Christians Primary in Paarl East. The children were treated to a fun-filled day at the Groot Drakenstein Games Club. An evidently shocked principal, Brian Fortuin, said that instead of an elaborate function as was held in the past, where parents would spend a lot of money on fancy outfits for their children, they decided to have an outing where the children could play and have fun. But at 15:00 things went terribly wrong, when one of the learners, Zuko Mbenenge (12), did not surface from the bottom of the pool. “When some of the children were not able to bring him to the surface, they alerted teachers and Zuko was retrieved from the bottom of the swimming pool. “We tried to resuscitate him and a doctor, Dr Richter, who drove by and saw the dilemma, stopped and assisted. “In the mean time the emergency services were contacted, but after an hour of treatment, Zuko was pronounced dead on the scene.” The young boy’s mother, Nomathamsanqa, was rushed to the scene, as well as Father Paul Taylor of the Catholic Church in Paarl. He assisted the children with counselling and prayer in their dark moment. Fortuin said that Zuko had been a learner at his school since Grade R. “He was a bright, cheerful boy and looked forward to going to high school next year.” “We will offer our full support to his family during the next few difficult weeks.” Zuko lived in Imbali Street, Mbekweni, with his mother, father Khaya and brother Kwakho (who is a Grade 4 learner at the same school). He was due to attend Wellington High School next year. No funeral arrangements had been made at the time of going to print. * A 24-year-old man from Cape Town drowned on Sunday at Wellington municipal swimming pool, when he jumped off the high diving board and presumably hit his head on the edge of the pool.
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