JOHANNESBURG - Community activist Curt Van Heerden said five-year-old Manqoba Mnisi's death, clearly shows how systems continue to fail South African children.
The Grade R pupil died more than a week ago.
He was allegedly left alone in a classroom during a school function.
"It's not only about mourning, it's about reckoning...Every child deserves more than five days.
Every mother deserves the certainty that when she releases her child into the world, the world will not send him back dead. We refuse to accept that this is the normal narrative of our communities.
We refuse to accept that confusion is closure. We refuse to let people work, replace accountability.
To this mother we say, you did not fail your son, the system failed him...
It is the structures that was meant to protect this child that failed us...
This coffin carries more than a child, this coffin carries a demand, a demand for truth, a demand for justice, a demand for accountability.
And let it be known to everybody here, we will not stop asking, we will not stop demanding and we will not stop standing together."