School sexual assault case spurs education MEC

Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi has tasked his head of department to immediately appoint a team to investigate all sexual assault cases in schools.

This follows yet another sexual assault on a 12-year-old schoolgirl – only this time the perpetrators were her fellow classmates.

Lesufi said the victim was traumatised after five of her classmates allegedly dragged her off to the bathroom, forced her to strip naked and searched her private parts for R10 they accused her of stealing.

According to her mother, she was also allegedly threatened that they were going to put her head inside the toilet pot and flush the toilet on Wednesday during school hours.

“A teacher walked in on the girls and basically saved her,” the distraught mother said. “The teacher’s description of the scene was worse than I thought at first. I cried and I don’t even know how my daughter is going to get over this.

“My child said they laughed at her as if it was a joke.”

Four of the girls have subsequently been suspended until Tuesday. The fifth girl, and the one who was allegedly the main perpetrator, was allowed to write her examinations this week.

On Thursday, the abused girl refused to go to school, but she had an exam paper to write so her grandmother accompanied her to school.

“I will fight for my child with my last breath. I will stand up for her, because she is not a violent person and she is not a fighter,” her mother said.

ALSO READ: Pupils living in fear of sexual assault at school

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