Schools are on winter recess but a pupil was found dead in the school grounds of a sports field on Tuesday in Garsfontein, east of Pretoria in Gauteng Province, South Africa.

Tuesday | July 4, 2023

A body of a teenager was discovered by a groundsman at a rugby field of Hoërskool Garsfontein, Pretoria, on Tuesday morning, eNCA and Newzroom Afrika reported.

According to the MEC of Education in Gauteng Matome Chiloane , the parents of the deceased grade 10 pupil reported her to the police as missing. However, the police found out that the description of the 16-year-old teen matched the one found at 8 o’clock in the morning.

Moloko Moloto of eNCA indicated that the fence of the school is too high to scale and there is a 24/7 security watch.

Interviewed by Stephen Grootes, Chiloane confirmed to Newzroom Afrika that it is not yet clear how the learner gained entrance to the school at the time when schools are on recess.

However, the MEC said the Department of Education is waiting for the postmortem report to ascertain the cause of death. Citing the learner’s friend, they [the pupils] never went to school during recess unless there was a reason to do so.

Furthermore, the family indicated that by midnight of Monday, June 3, the teenager was at home. Therefore, during that “8-hour period” it is unknown what could have transpired, Chiloane told Newzroom Afrika.

At the moment, he said the case has been recorded it as an unnatural death meanwhile the probe by the relevant authorities is underway.