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Evidence wa ka Ngobeni A principal at a North West school has admitted to beating students for failing to contribute towards the salary of another teacher at the school. LS Thwane, headmaster at Montshioa Memorial Middle School near Mmabatho, made his startling admission to the Mail & Guardian this week after students and teachers broke their silence about his activities. Students said their ordeal started last year when Thwane invited a voluntary teacher to teach English. The teacher, who is alleged to be related to the principal, was called to help with grade six and seven English classes.
Teachers said this week that Thwane had asked parents to donate money to compensate the English teacher. However, students and teachers claim that Thwane has been beating those students who have failed to raise any money.
“He is so arrogant and he does not want to listen. He comes into a class, he does not talk to the teacher and threatens students that if they do not pay the money they will get another beating,” said a teacher, who did not want to be named. Corporal punishment in schools was outlawed more than four years ago, but there are claims that many teachers still resort to it.
A Constitutional Court challenge from Christian Education South Africa several weeks ago seeking the reinstatement of corporal punishment was dismissed. Thwane admitted that he often asks student to donate between R5 and R20 a month to pay the volunteer teacher, but he denied the teacher is his nephew. “Yes, we do want to pay this teacher as a token of our appreciation, but that he is related to me is totally rubbish,” he said. As for the alleged beatings: “I sometimes lose it. But I seldom use corporal punishment,” he said. Thwane added that other teachers at the school beat students and he has warned them that it is a criminal offence. The school has more than 20 teachers and caters for about 700 students. Kgomotso Letsebele is one of the students who says she has been a victim of Thwane’s beatings. A grade nine student, she said the principal beat her and her friends for four days in succession for failing to pay the money. “My parents are not staying here and I kept telling the principal that I don’t have the money, but he beat me every day I came to school.
“This whole thing makes me not to want to come to school. I know that if I don’t come up with the money the principal will beat me,” said Letsebele. Although the situation has apparently angered teachers as well as the student representative council, council president Mongesi Ndikandika said everyone in the school is afraid to confront Thwane. “He is a bully and his word is final. He beats student in front of teachers and they can’t do anything,” said Ndikandika. Ndikandika said his organisation has reported the matter to the Congress of South African Students, which has undertaken to report it to the Department of Education.