This is the child’s fourth attempt at running away in the last seven months, his father said.
His son walked from school and only arrived at home at about 17:00.

A caregiver at the school allegedly beat them with a wooden stick for breaking a plate.

The grade one learner told a www.mobserver.co.za journalist that the caregiver has locked him in the toilet before for being ‘naughty’.
The father insists that this is not the first time the caregiver has used corporal punishment on his son.

He went to the Middelburg Police Station to report the matter but a case was not opened.
The police advised him to speak to the school principal instead.

The principal allegedly told him that he was not aware of the incident and a social worker would be appointed to speak to his son.

The Middelburg Police spokesperson, Captain Khanyisile Zwane, said during an interview with the child and his father, the child never mentioned being physically abused.
When asked why he was constantly running away from school, the boy reportedly told Captain Zwane that he wanted to live with his aunt in Doornkop.

“The child is not coping in boarding school, we advised his father to enroll him into a another school next year”.

The father told the paper that his son tried to escape again. “He is back at school as we speak. The school said they will call me when the social worker arrives. I am seriously considering enrolling him at another school next year,” the father said.

The spokesperson for the Department of Education in Mpumalanga, Jasper Zwane, was not available for comment.