Education authorities held liable for learner’s death at stadium
In an August 2025 High Court ruling, the Court found the Minister of Basic Education, the provincial MEC, and a public school jointly and severally liable for R750 000 after a 14-year-old pupil fell to her death at Mmabatho Stadium while looking for a bathroom
The Court held that both the school and education authorities were financially responsible for the incident due to a lack of proper supervision.
During an arts-and-culture event at the stadium, the learner and a classmate asked their teacher for help finding the toilets. The teacher declined to accompany them, saying she “did not want to be involved in the toilet issue”. Left to wander through the unfamiliar stadium, the children climbed to the top level where the learner became dizzy and fell to her death. Although the action was defended and the defendants filed a plea, their defence was struck out due to a failure to comply with an order compelling discovery, and the matter proceeded on an unopposed basis.
The plaintiffs, who were all close family members of the deceased, then brought an action claiming damages in the amount of R3 million for psychological trauma, emotional shock and grief. The Court then had to determine whether the defendants acted negligently and unlawfully in failing to safeguard the learner, and if so, whether the harm suffered by the plaintiffs exceeded ordinary grief and amounted to a recognised psychiatric injury.
The Court explained that teachers and school authorities have a legal duty to supervise and protect learners, especially during school events at external venues. This duty requires them to take reasonable steps to guard against foreseeable harm, which is a responsibility that flows from their position of authority over learners and the trust placed in them by parents and society. In this instance, the teacher’s dismissive attitude, coupled with the absence of supervision created a situation of risk directly attributable to the tragedy. Additionally, the defendants ignored the foreseeable risk of children accessing dangerous and elevated sections of the stadium. Had the teacher escorted the children or given clear instructions, the fall probably would not have happened or, at the very least, the risk of the incident would have reduced materially.
In previous judgements, the High Court has stated that ordinary grief does not amount to compensable psychiatric injury. However, this matter was found to be distinct in that the plaintiffs’ harm was clinically diagnosed as psychiatric disorders by an expert psychologist, surpassing the threshold of ordinary grief.
In light of the above, the Court found the defendants jointly and severally liable, with the one paying the other to be absolved, for the death of the learner and ordered payment to the plaintiffs totalling R750 000. Liability for incidents of this nature attach to the MEC for Education in accordance with section 60 of South African Schools Act of 1996 and not the school. However, because the matter proceeded on an unopposed basis, the Court did not have the benefit of considering opposing evidence and arguments on liability nor merits nor damages. This raises questions about whether similar claims, particularly those based on brief, could become more common in the absence of opposition, potentially opening the floodgates for such claims.
