By: Natasha Archary
“Why did it take them an hour to call me?”
The family of 3-year old Kganya Mokhele, who died after a bookcase collapsed on him are seeking answers from the créche.
During the Gauteng Education MEC, Matome Chiloane’s visit to Little Ashford crèche on Wednesday, 08 March, Kganya’s family accused the school of trying to cover up the tragedy.
Little Kganya died on Tuesday, 07 March while trying to grab a toy from the bookcase in his classroom. The Mokhele family say their request to view the video footage of the incident was denied.
It was only at 18h00 on Tuesday that they were granted permission to view the CCTV footage.
The family said while it’s understandable that the tragic accident could have happened to any child, what the crèche did afterward was unacceptable.
“The bookcase fell on him at 09h00, but they only called me to the scene after 10h00. I live 5-minutes from the school and I was at home at the time.
When we went to the hospital, there wasn’t a single person from the school present. We really would love to know what really happened. The treatment we got from the school was horrific. It was lies, lies, and lies.
Even to get the CCTV footage, things got ugly. It leaves a bad taste in our mouths. I am sure the school didn’t mean for this to happen, but what they did afterward, trying to cover it up, that is what makes us really angry.”
Kganya’s grandfather, Sipho Radebe accused Little Ashford of covering up his grandson’s death
But the crèche said it wasn’t intentional to only call the family after an hour. CEO Cedric Ntumba said staff were just following their own internal processes and procedures.
“Internally we were also trying to follow our process. In the meantime we needed to communicate with the family. As the child was moved from the school to the hospital, certain action and changes needed to take place. So a lot was happening on Tuesday, is through all of that we find ourselves unable to communicate in a timely manner or where there has been miscommunication, I can sincerely apologise.”
Cedric Ntumba, CEO Little Ashford
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