The SAPS spokesperson, Const. Kelebogile Trom, says the mother was at home at about 15:30 when her boyfriend came in carrying her daughter. She told him that she could not walk properly because she had slipped on a crayon in her classroom and had fallen. At first, the mother thought nothing of the fact that the little girl’s underwear was back to front but, when she bathed her the next morning, she noticed something that looked like semen on her legs.

She took her daughter to a nearby clinic and the child was later transferred to Potchefstroom Hospital.

“When the hospital staff asked what had happened, she told them that an unidentified schoolboy had taken her to the school grounds and raped her. At this stage, the suspect is still unknown,” Trom says.

Elias Malindi, NW Department of Education and Sport spokesperson says the SAPS detectives visited the school and were accompanied by a parent. They requested permission to secure a crime scene within the school premises.

“We requested the groundsman to assist them, and they secured the area for the sniffer dogs to come and sweep the area.

“On enquiring from the educators responsible for the Gr. R classes, we learned that the learner had left after school with the other learners. She was uninjured. The educators say they escorted the learners out of the school grounds on that day and supervised them crossing the road as some children walk home. The victim is one of the learners who either waits for her sister or leaves with her cousin from another primary school.

“On the day in question, the principal was the last person to leave the school premises between 15:45 and 16:00. He did not see anything or hear screams that would have alerted him to such an incident. The groundsman left after the teachers but before the principal and did not leave any learners on the school premises.

“He would have noticed any learner in distress as he always alerts the principal to those who have missed their transport,” he said.