Andrea Shaw and Daniel Limpitlaw discuss mining.
Four pupils from the Jan Kempdorp High School in the Northern Cape will appear in court on Friday morning on charges of rape and assault, after a black learner was raped by the four white learners with a broomstick last Sunday.
Northern Cape police spokesperson, Colonel Priscilla Naidu, said the four learners alleged to have committed the act were charged and taken to court on Friday. The victim’s mother, who lives in Postmasburg, contacted the police and the police then went to the school, where the learners were charged.
A video of the incident shows the boy tied to a school bed, crying and screaming while the learners rubbed a white substance on his body and raped him.
Naidu said the court would decide whether the boys would be detained or released on bail later on Friday.
Meanwhile, Democratic Alliance spokesperson Phumzile van Damme said the party would protest at the school on Friday morning.
Video
City Press reported that the four-minute video shows a group of six white pupils, who were wearing only their underpants, attacking the child.
The video, which was seen by City Press, shows the boy bound to a bed and painted with a white substance before the boys raped him. A group of black pupils are also seen watching the attack.
Before he was raped, the video shows his attackers shaving his head and his buttocks. The boy can be heard screaming and crying as his attackers and other boys in the room laugh and joke.
The assault allegedly took place in the agricultural school’s hostel in Jan Kempdorp, which is on the border with the North West.
Northern Cape education spokesperson Sydney Stander said the video was shot on Sunday at the hostel.
‘Blatant racism’
The victim’s grandmother informed the school of the attack on Wednesday after the child finally told her what happened.
The child is apparently a new pupil at the school.
“You cannot tell me that these learners at this age with their level of education didn’t know that what they were doing is unacceptable. This is blatant racism,” Stander said to the newspaper.
“How do you take a broom and shove it into the rectum of a young boy? Inflicting pain on another human is criminal,” he added.
‘Un-African’ behaviour
In a statement, Northern Cape education MEC Grizelda Cjiekella-Lecholo said she was at a loss for words.
“This type of behaviour is un-African, inhumane and does not belong in our schooling system. I am going to ensure that these boys face the full might of our due process and the law … ” she said.
Cjiekella-Lecholo added that her department “cannot continue to bend over for those who continue to reject the changes that have been embraced by many in our country”.
The young boy is receiving trauma counselling. – Staff reporter