The Constitutional Court has dismissed a last-ditch effort by the Nelson Mandela Bay metro to avoid paying damages to a family whose toddler drowned in a broken drain in Kariega. The metro's lawyers argued that the parents should be held accountable for the death as they were negligent in leaving the toddler at home in the care of another child.

The Constitutional Court has dismissed a final attempt by the Nelson Mandela Bay metro to escape liability for a toddler's drowning in an open drain that took them eight years to fix.

The metro argues that the parents of the child were responsible for her death as they left the 17-month-old in the care of another minor, who temporarily left her in the house while the older child went to fetch water. The court heard that the toddler escaped the yard through a hole in the fence, fell into the open drain and drowned. The parents were not aware that the fence was broken at the time.

The metro has insisted in papers before the court that, despite the community's adamance that they reported the dangerous open drain several times, it was not aware of the problem. The metro's report submitted to the court, however, was for Mielies Street and not for Grootboom Street.

During the drawn-out court case, the High Court first ruled on this issue in favour of the parents. A full bench of the Makhanda High Court, with Judge Gerald Bloem writing on behalf of the court, overturned this ruling and dismissed the claim by the parents...