Sir Pierre matrics, parents turn violent after matric dance con

MATRICULANTS and their parents attacked the organiser of the school’s matric farewell on Friday evening for allegedly failing to deliver the fairytale evening he had promised the students.

Matriculants of Sir Pierre Van Ryneveld High School and their parents resorted to violence in front of the Midrand Conferencing Centre after waiting outside the venue for hours for Jabulani “Jay Stifler” Sithole to arrive.

Sithole is a known event’s organiser around the East Rand.

A video of the beating is doing the rounds on social media.

TO WATCH THE VIDEO, CLICK HERE

According to one parent, Shenaaz Wilson, students had to pay Sithole R700 each by the end of August, which included the venue and a meal.

“My daughter was frozen stiff after waiting outside the venue from 5pm to about 10pm. I was not there but a relative was. She went into the venue and was told by management the organiser had only paid part of the total amount due to book the venue,” Wilson said.

“When parents heard he had not fully paid for the venue, they were angry and said he should come outside to explain. When he did, they started beating him up. Police were called to the scene.

“We need to know why this happened. They waited the whole year. So much money was invested paying for hair, make-up, outfits and nails. We need answers from the school. Don’t they do background checks on organisers and why did they have to outsource the event?” she asked.

General manager of Midrand Conferencing Centre, Kaylene Wishnuff, said Sithole was supposed to have paid R41 975 to book the venue.

“If you are a long standing client in our books, you could have an account with us. However, it was the first time dealing with Jabu and as is the case with any first time clients at any venue, everything has to be paid upfront before the event,” clarified Wishnuff.

According to Wishnuff, Sithole only paid R5 000 of the R41 975 quoted by the centre and after numerous calls on the day of the function, he eventually transferred a further R14 500 but still owed R22 475.

Wishnuff said Sithole had called on the day of the event, requesting to pay the balance after the matric dance.

“I told him unfortunately it was not going to work. He then arrived with another R8 500 in cash at about 7.30pm and said a friend was going to swipe a card with the balance. Based on this we invited the kids into the garden to enjoy their welcome drinks. However, we waited for ages. Later he said the friend was in Hyde Park and couldn’t pay but another friend was going to do an EFT,” explained Wishnuff.

He paid a total of R28 000, but still owed R13 970.

Sithole allegedly spent another few hours making calls to different people. It dragged on and there was one story after the other.

By 9pm, Wishnuff said she apologised to Sithole and told him they had to close their doors as there was no sign of the balance being paid.

“I’m not sure what happened outside as the parents were very angry. There was a large crowd.”

Wishnuff said as soon as it turned ugly, they called Midrand SAPS who said no vehicles were available to come out, although they did eventually arrive. “We ended up calling our armed response company who came and helped Jabu inside the yard.

“It was a very traumatic evening. His shirt was off and he looked like he had been punched in the eye. He looked like he had suffered a bit of a mauling.”

Wishnuff said they felt badly for the students and their parents and decided to make the best of an awful situation by inviting both the students and their parents into the venue.

“We opened the buffet and asked one of our team members to bring in our equipment and we played the music we had,” she said.

Police eventually arrived and were left outside with Sithole.

EXPRESS called Sithole, who denied allegations that he owed the booking fee, claiming he had paid the venue R42 000 and extra so that “no one was left out”.

Midrand Conference Centre, however, said he had admitted to them that he didn’t have the money and couldn’t pay.

“Sithole admitted to our CEO in front of witnesses he had pocketed R98 000 and no longer had it. Our CEO asked him whether he understood that he had stolen the money from poor people and from us. We have been in this business for almost 20 years and this is the first time that a con artist has caught us like this.”

Sithole claimed he had proof of payments made to the venue prior to the event that he would supply to EXPRESS once he had verified it with his lawyer.

At the time of the call on Monday Sithole said he was at the police station.

Both parties agree that three payments were made, however, Wishnuff sent EXPRESS proof that the last payment was R8 500 while Sithole insisted it was R 18 500.

Sir Pierre deputy principal, Margaret Wrigley, made it clear the school had nothing to do with the matric dance. “We do not organise a matric farewell as a school and have not done so for the past 10 years or so.

“The reason is that it’s a massive cost to parents. We already have a struggle with school fees as it is,” she explained.

Wrigley said the incident from the weekend was unfortunate.

“It’s very horrible from what we’ve heard but at this stage we don’t have enough information to make an informed comment on the matter.”