Violence in schools is raising an outcry in Eastern Cape communities as a principal stands accused of horrific acts of violence and harassment.
His alleged actions have even shocked an education minister, while parents in Komani are praying that their son – stabbed in the eye by a peer with a spoon at another school – will be able to see again.
Parents of the one school, Makaula Senior Secondary School in Lugangeni village in KwaBhaca, are livid that no action has been taken against principal Luzuko Mbana.
The Eastern Cape education department promised to investigate the complaints last month.
This was after a video went viral.
Mbana, who initially denied that the school was still using corporal punishment, blamed parents, saying it was they who insisted that teachers use corporal punishment.
Mbana has been accused of:
lBeating a pregnant pupil until she had a miscarriage;
lCausing a pupil to lose the use of her left hand;
lTaking a pupil to a local clinic for a pregnancy test without the consent of her mother and expelling her after results came back positive; and
lInstructing security guards to take turns in beating pupils.
Basic Education Deputy Minister Mohamed Enver Surty, speaking in East London last week, said immediate intervention was needed.
“What I have seen there is unconstitutional, unlawful and criminal. There is no place for educators who inflict violence on our pupils. Corporal punishment is out, it does not form part of the education landscape.”
Education MEC Mandla Makupula said senior officials had been sent to the school to ascertain the facts before deciding what action to take.
Parent Nomsa Novukela said her daughter Phumla lost the use of her left hand after an incident in 2013.
Novukela said her daughter returned home from school with a swollen hand.
“She told me that she was beaten by Mbana,” she said.
Novukela said Mbana had taken her daughter to a doctor.
“He just told me that the doctor said she was fine, but the hand was never fine and it is not fine even today,” she said.
Nolukholo Makaula’s daughter Andisiwe was expelled in April.
This was after Mbana, according to Makaula, arrived at 4am with two unknown men and took her daughter with them.
Andisiwe told the Dispatch Mbana had taken her straight to school.
“He performed some tests. I did not know what they were for.”
Andisiwe said she was later taken to a local clinic where similar tests were performed.
“I feel disrespected. He thought he had the authority to take my child, who is a minor, and perform a pregnancy test without my permission,” the livid mother said.
A woman who introduced herself only as a Mrs Mcobongeli said her daughter had a miscarriage after she was assaulted at the school.
However, Mbana denied the allegations, saying in fact it was the mother of the pupil who assaulted her daughter and trampled on her.
Despite Mbana denying assaulting the pupil, Mcobongeli said the principal took the pupil to a doctor.
Mbana said he took the girl to a doctor because she was “bleeding and in severe pain”.
Mbana initially denied the school used corporal punishment, saying the allegations were lies peddled by those jealous of the “school’s good pass rate”.
He later made a U-turn, saying they used corporal punishment because parents urged them to.
Mbana said there was no policy that pupils should be beaten.
“The temptation comes with parents. Although you know that you are breaking the law, the parent would insist that you beat the child.
“After the video went viral, we have since stopped,” he said.
Former pupils who were expelled have complained of suffering at the hands of Mbana.
Nkosincedile Qulu, 18, said he was expelled last year after he refused to be beaten.
“He destroyed my future. I would be at school now if he did not expel me,” he said.
Victoria Sikuda said her grandson Sizwe Manyala was expelled in 2015, also after refusing to be beaten.
“I received a call from the principal saying I must look for another school for him,” she said.
However, Khula Community Development Project, which works to protect children’s rights, blasted the education department.
Its director, Petros Majola, said: “In this department everything is investigated, you never get end results. Mbana is treating pupils like animals, but even animals have rights.”
Nine Grade 12 pupils at the school were expelled last week for failing to attend spring school.
They had feared that they might not write their matric exams, which in some schools started yesterday.
Provincial education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said: “No principal, no school governing body and no district director can expel a pupil.”
But by yesterday, none of the pupils were back at school.
lA schoolboy fight over a spoon during breaktime at Nkwanca High School in Mlungisi location in Komani on Friday has left Simamkele Mashiqi blinded.
A pupil demanded a spoon from him, but when he refused to give it, the pupil snatched the spoon and stabbed him in the eye with it.
Mashiqi’s father, Andile Ganca, said they were praying that he would see again.
“We are going to open a case against the boy who attacked him.”
Principal Ntsikelelo Lutseke said: “Unfortunately we could not get hold of the culprit as he ran away and has not been to school.” — Additional reporting by Tembile Sgqolana