Alex Matlala
LIMPOPO – A community leader, an activist and an educationalist in Tzaneen, Kamogelo Molewa, said teachers were supposed to be second parents to learners and not their worst nightmares.
He said it was the duty of teachers to make sure that children worked, smiled and were guided and disciplined.
This comment followed after a nine-year-old boy was brutally assaulted with an electric cable, allegedly by his teacher. He may never be able to use one of his hands again.
The boy had not been to school since Friday because he had to undergo an operation at Tzaneen Medi-Clinic over the weekend. The boy, Tebogo Mahasha, from Ramalema Primary school in Lenyenye, was allegedly assaulted by his teacher for failing to report to school last Friday.
The boy was assaulted together with other learners and was the only one severely injured. His sister, Karabo, who is a learner at the same school, has not attended school for a week for fear of also being assaulted.
Speaking to CV earlier this week, the mother of the boy, Mapula Mahasha, said she went to the school to see the principal who tried to convince her not to open a criminal case, but she was adament and opened a case despite this.
“My son is in abject agony and cannot face the teacher or his classmates. I want the teacher to understand that we send our children to school because we believe they will be well looked after there,” she said.
Mopani police spokesperson, Lt Col Moatshe Ngoepe, said the police were aware of the incident and were investigating.
Ngoepe said in another incident, a teacher at Phepeheni Primary School in Pharare village outside Lenyenye was arrested earlier this week for allegedly assaulting another boy during a lesson.
Congress of South African Students Mopani region chairperson, Promise Peta, said if the allegations proved to be true, the teachers involved in both incidents should be removed from the schools permanently as they were not fit to hold public office.
Education Department spokesperson, Dr Naledzani Rasila, said the department was flattened by the incidents in which teachers continued to be accused of assaulting learners. “Our view is that teachers are supposed to be to be role models to the children instead of unleashing a reign of terror over them,” he said, adding that teachers knew corporal punishment was not acceptable. “We will conduct an internal investigation into the matters and take disciplinary steps where necessary,” Rasila concluded.
