The embattled principal of the Ithuteng Trust school in Kliptown was taken to hospital after collapsing following her appearance in the Protea Magistrate’s Court in Soweto, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.
Jackie Maarohanye faces charges of assault and kidnapping after allegedly being part of a group that held a reporter and driver from the Sowetan newspaper hostage for more than six hours at the school at the weekend.
She was remanded in custody until Friday as the state needed more time to investigate and obtain outstanding documents. A date for a bail application will only be set at the next court appearance.
Maarohanye’s co-accused, Patricia Malawa, was granted R2 000 bail.
The Star newspaper reported that Maarohanye was arrested in Pretoria on Sunday night after being spotted by one of President Thabo Mbeki’s bodyguards.
Earlier on Sunday, police arrested 72 students and parents who had tried to prevent police who had come to arrest Maarohanye from gaining entry to the school.
Gauteng police spokesperson Constable Sefako Xaba said the group had locked the school gates and threw sticks and stones at the police. Other members of the group were also expected to appear in court on Monday.
Reporter Vusi Ndlovu had gone to the school to interview Maarohanye and was allegedly locked up and assaulted alongside driver Mabu Nkadimeng for more than six hours in the school hall by students and parents on Saturday.
The group wanted the Sowetan to apologise for articles published in the newspaper.
‘Brazen attack’
The South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) on Monday condemned the kidnapping and assault of Ndlovu and Nkadimeng.
”This is one of the most brazen, brutal and blatant attacks on a journalist in the post-apartheid era and we condemn it unreservedly,” Sanef said in a statement.
”Maahoranye … needs lessons in the operational requirements of media freedom and Sanef is happy to play the teacher to the principal. Previously a woman who basked in the media limelight, she has now taken to beating up the messenger. This is unacceptable.”
It is the media’s job to expose egregious breaches of the public trust, Sanef said. ”In doing so, journalists must be allowed to work without fear of violence; it is one of the fruits of our democracy.”
Maarohanye, once known as the ”Angel of Soweto”, was earlier this year accused of defrauding donors of millions of rands.
M-Net’s Carte Blanche aired an investigative documentary accusing Maarohanye of using the plight of vulnerable pupils to solicit money from donors by fabricating their personal histories.
The exposé followed her arrest last year for public violence and malicious damage to property when her pupils, allegedly under her instruction, burned tyres and blocked roads over the police’s alleged failure to solve the death of a fellow pupil.
The pupil died in a fire at the school, and Maarohanye allegedly insisted that a hut on the premises of the trust had been petrol-bombed. — Sapa