MBOMBELA – “Mama, please buy me antiseptic for my wounds, they are better but they have not healed properly.”

Mary Thobela * (not her real name) listened to her child pleading with her for help after allegedly receiving 16 lashes with a sjambok on the buttocks at Cefups Academy.

Her child is a friend of the 19-year-old girl who recently died after allegedly being severely beaten at the school.

The mother, who spoke to Mpumalanga News on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said she saw her child on Saturday (August 2) during a visit to the school.

“I couldn’t see the wounds because we were in an open-plan area with other learners and parents. But I could see the fear on my child’s face as I got glimpses of what transpired at the school that left our children badly beaten up.

“My child even refused to eat the food we brought along,” she recounted.

According to Thobela, her child revealed that all the grade 12 learners received lashes on July 25, for not attaining 100 per cent in their mid-year examinations.

Two days later, on July 27, parents were invited to the school to attend a parents’ meeting at which they received the learners’ report cards at a ceremony that honoured the top-10 matric achievers.

“We requested on that day to see our children, but were refused. Even the top-10 learners who received awards, only went on stage and didn’t have contact with their parents. I suspect they didn’t want us to see them then because the bruises were still very fresh,” she said.

Thobela said her latest visit to the school was nothing like previous ones. “There was fear in the air. No one spoke to the principal as we usually do. He was surrounded by his two sons and maintained his distance.

Parents were afraid to leave their children behind and learners were terrified to see their parents leave – they wept. It was so sad. We are afraid our children might end up like the child who died in the absence of her parents.”

She bows her head, covers her eyes with her hand and takes a deep breath before continuing to describe the events of that fateful Thursday (July 31) as narrated to her by her child.

“Apparently the deceased learner informed the teachers and the principal that she was not feeling well, but her plight was ignored. Until Thursday when prefects found her soiling herself and vomiting in her room. They bathed her and only then was an ambulance called by the school authorities. The police came soon after the ambulance had arrived.”

Another parent, father of a grade 12 learner at the school, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, told Mpumalanga News how his child witnessed the whole ordeal. “The children were very traumatised after what they had seen.

My child told me how the deceased learner’s wounds had started showing signs of infection when she was being bathed. Had she received medical treatment earlier, maybe she would still be alive,” he said.

Both parents agree that the school’s methods of punishment were severe, but praised the discipline instilled in their children. Thobela said it was not her choice to send her child to the school but that of her child in pursuit of good matric results.

“Although I do not agree with the methods of punishment, I applaud the school for its level of discipline. My child is no longer the same since attending the school. It teaches them responsibility and self-discipline.

They also get great academic results. But no child should be abused for the sake of discipline, or be abused to excel in their studies. I do not advise parents to take their children to that school. It is hell.”

Thobela also stated there was nowhere to voice their concerns as parents because they were fully aware of the corporal punishment at the school and feared their children would be targeted for divulging such incidents “We pay R63 000 for school and boarding fees, including uniform, a year.

“There is no way I could take my child out of the school now because they are three months away from writing their final exams. I just pray that all goes well up to the end. I’m concerned that after the death of the other learner and the harsh corporal punishment they keep enduring, my child might lose focus in his studies.

“These children need a psychologist. What they went through is tragic,” she concluded.

Click here to read previous article(s):

Ex- pupil tells of the brutaility at Cefups