Durban - Those who work with children are often tasked with the most difficult jobs in society.
They should be patient and attentive as they are shaping young minds that will be essential in the country’s future. However, some of these workers are often accused of violence and other heinous acts against children.
This is the case with the Mdladla* family, located in uMlazi, KwaZulu-Natal, who say their 15-year-old boy was hit over the head with a plank by Shange, a substitute security guard at Swelihle Secondary School.
The Grade 10 learner’s sister said there was a commotion at their home on Thursday, June 8, when other pupils from the school rushed to tell the family.
“They knocked loudly on the door and said they had grave news. I immediately knew that something horrible had happened to my brother. I recalled hearing that a student had died at the same school in 2022, allegedly in a fight, so I started to panic,” she said.
The pupils told her that her brother had been injured by the institution’s general worker and substitute security guard. They said the boy had been rushed to Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital.
“The kids told me that he had been bleeding badly, with his shirt covered in blood. I called my mother, who had already been contacted by the principal,” she said.
According to the family, they started to have doubts when the principal, a Mrs Sithole, was supposedly not forthcoming with information about what had taken place. They said when the boy’s mother arrived at the school, she seemed to not have any answers.
They accused the principal of protecting the alleged perpetrator over the well-being of the learner.
The boy said: “We had just finished writing an exam when our teacher told us to leave the school as we were being noisy and disrupting the matriculants who were still writing. When we arrived at the gate, Shange would not allow us to exit.
“I told him we were permitted to by the teachers, but he did not listen to me. He said he was told not to open the gate. He then proceeded to insult me, call me stupid and he cornered me, but I managed to push him off. He got into the security guard post and he fetched a plank.”
The boy says he stumbled and the man hit him over the head.
“All I saw was the broken plank hitting the ground a distance away from me, my shirt turning red and students screaming around me,” he said.
Although discharged from the hospital the same day, the Mdladla family said the teenager barely slept that day due to a combination of pain and traumatic flashbacks of the incident.
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Mrs Sithole is said to have downplayed the alleged incident and kept saying that the guard was someone who loves children and even knows their families since he lives in the area.
“We were told that my brother is a disciplined child who respects teachers and other staff members, but in contradiction to this, they also said he must have aggravated Shange to his breaking point. We had to keep pressing with the questions because the principal continued to downplay the situation,” his sister said.
“They are protecting him, trying to cover it up and gaslighting us into believing the incident was not as serious as it actually is. My brother will still have to see this man at school. The negative psychological impact due to trauma will continue long after the scar heals,” she added.
The family said the school promised to offer the pupil counselling but weeks have passed without it being fulfilled.
The school and principal were not available for comment.
The family said that they did not report the incident to the police, but did report it to the provincial Department of Education. However, departmental spokesperson, Muzi Mahlambi, was not aware of the incident.
According to national basic education department, school safety is taken extremely seriously, and as a top priority, the agency has put in place several rules and mechanisms to safeguard the safety of all learners, educators, and key stakeholders in schools.
“The department reiterates that there is no place for violence, drug use or abuse, sexual harassment and other criminal acts in schools as it poses a serious barrier to learning.
“There is great focus on the inculcation of values and ethics and of a just and caring society within schools and communities,” the department said in a statement.
* Not their real surname. Changed for privacy.
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