Four students linked to assault video suspended

Four pupils linked to a video of an assault from the Hoërskool President High School in Ridgeway, south of Johannesburg, have been suspended. Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi visited the school on Friday morning after a disturbing video of two pupils fighting surfaced and trended on social media.

The pupils have been suspended, pending an investigation, and a hearing will be held on January 31. Lesufi said he would never tolerate any form of racism or bullying in schools.

Should the disciplinary hearing find the pupils guilty, they will then be forced to find space somewhere else and “not in Gauteng schools”, Lesufi said.

“We can’t transfer one problem to another school, we are very firm, we are not denying them their rights, we say we can’t tolerate this kind of behaviour. We can’t have somebody that believes they have the right to resolve problems through violence.”

He said all the scholars’ parents had accepted the pupil’s suspension as they had sanctioned the children’s suspension.

School principal Andrè Ferreira said this was an isolated incident and that they never had a racial incident at the school. The MEC will be investigating what exactly caused the altercation.

School principal Andrè Ferreira. Image: Lucky Thusi

Ten teachers will be patrolling the school grounds as opposed to the usual four who patrolled before, in order to better manage the situation.

Lesufi said the department did not want to jump the gun but would follow the policies of the school to ensure a fair outcome.

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