Local News
Parents open case against Vereeniging school "bully"─── 06:07 Thu, 18 Jun 2015
Johannesburg - Parents of a pupil from the Krugerlaan School in Vereeniging have opened a case against his alleged bully, Gauteng police said on Wednesday.
"There is case of common assault, and police are investigating," Captain Shado Mashobane told News24.
"There is no progress report yet; we will have one tomorrow. The IO [investigation officer] received the docket today."
Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi visited the school earlier on Wednesday.
"The MEC visited the school this morning and met the parents of the learner, the SGB chairperson and the school' management team... the department is expecting a report from the school," provincial education spokesperson, Phumla Sekhonyane, told News24.
"The MEC expressed his disappointment with what had happened at the school. He urged the district to investigate and act speedily on the issue of whether the learners were supervised.
"Our labour relations section has been instructed to go into the school to investigate the issue of the supervision of learners."
Sekhonyane said the incident reportedly happened on Friday, and it came to the department's attention on Sunday.
A video of the incident where one pupil physically assaults another has gone viral.
The video begins with a teenager telling the viewers that he had permission to assault the boy that he then subsequently slaps, punches and knees.
As the camera pans around, the teacher can be seen sitting at his desk marking books.
The video had 2 195 545 views on Facebook by 16:30 on Wednesday.
Sekhonyane told Radio Sonder Grense on Wednesday that the teacher was already under investigation for other complaints.
When News24 called the school earlier, staff said the principal was not available for comment, and the school referred queries to the department's district office, who in turn referred News24 back to Sekhonyane.
Anti-bullying petition launched One Facebook user, Jacky Botha, started a petition on Change.org called 'NO TO BULLYING AT KRUGERLAAN SCHOOL AND ALL SCHOOLS IN SOUTH AFRICA!'
She writes on the petition page, "South Africa has a bad reputation that this is not an isolated case and is prevalent in schools around the country.
"Parents please unite, let us help the children in our schools! Please share this petition so that we can get as many signatures as possible."
A former pupil told News24 that he was only at the school for a year and left because "they'll kill you there".
"You have normal classes, and after that you go to woodwork or sheet metal classes. I saw guys taking sheets of metal, and they cut out pieces of blades and sharpen them with a grinder and hide it away," he claimed.
'Your son is a sissie' Nelmarie Ruysch, whose son used to go to the school, told Netwerk24 earlier that a former teacher told her, "Your son is a sissy. Calm down please," after she complained that her son was being bullied.
Ruysch said her son was constantly bullied when he was 15 years old.
“He is slim built and suffered a lot. They [the bullies] stole his food and lunch money and kicked him until his fingers became dislocated. He ate [his lunch] in interval in the class.”
His neck was burnt with wood, Ruysch claimed.
She said she repeatedly brought it to the school’s attention but a teacher who is no longer at the school told her to calm down and not create an issue about it.
