• A 12-year-old (initially reported as nine years old) pupil at a special school in Steadville was found dead after having drowned in a concrete sewer pit.Family, pupils and staff had been searching for the missing pupil since Wednesday afternoon.The alarm was raised when a taxi driver who normally collects several pupils from the school noticed that one of his charges was not waiting to be picked up.

  A search of the classroom revealed that the boy’s school bag was still there.

  Security at the school insisted that the youngster had not passed them and left the school. On Wednesday morning, the search continued and the body of the youngster was spotted by teachers floating in a concrete pit. The SAPS K9 Unit, along with the Sharaj Ambulance Services rescue unit, managed to recover the body after a rescue officer was lowered into the pit.

• Rigor mortis had set in, indicating that the boy had died the day before.
• The MEC for Education in KwaZulu-Natal, Nelisiwa Peggy Nkonyeni, issued a statement in which she extended her condolences to the family, friends and the school.
• Reports on national media sites have incorrectly stated that the youngster was trapped in a container. The sewerage pit cannot be entered without lifting heavy manhole covers.
• The fact that nobody could have entered the pit without help has increased speculation that the special needs pupil may have been deliberately thrown into the pit.
• “There is just no way a person could have gotten into the pit without opening the manholes, which begs the question: Even if he had fallen in accidentally, who closed the manholes afterwards?” said a first responder who asked not to be named.
• All entrances to the pit were sealed at the time and only a 30cm breather hole was open. An inquest has been opened to establish how the youngster ended up in the sewer pit.

Child drowns in sewer pit