Mpho Mavi* is a thin, timid boy with white sores that dimple his belly and back. The marks bear testimony to the torture he suffered, allegedly at the hands of his teacher, her husband and two other men.
The 13-year-old boy claims he was sjambokked, hung by his feet, burnt and nearly drowned after his teacher accused him of stealing her handbag in October last year.
He may never father a child because of the burns he received to his genitals.
Mpho, who lives in rural the Daantjie tribal trust near Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, is still so traumatised that he has become a loner, truant and bed-wetter.
His parents withdrew him and his twin sisters from Tiga Primary School after the abuse because they feared for the children’s safety. At the time his father was so distressed that he believed it would be better for the children to go without an education than face abuse in school.
‘My children will stay home day and night so that I can protect them from now on,” says his father. ‘I never attended school but I’m surviving like everyone else so they can also live without an education.”
The children missed nearly two months of school before Tiga Primary School principal Success Mashego managed to convince Mpho’s parents to enrol them again. But the parents decided to enrol them at another school in February.
Mpho is now repeating Grade 4 at Bongani Primary School, while his sisters are repeating Grade 2 and their younger brother started Grade 1.
Mpho initially refused to return to school and would hide whenever a child in school uniform passed his house. He hasn’t received any counselling and can’t seem to break from the shackles of the abuse.
‘He seems mentally disturbed from the torture,” says his new principal Nozipho Mgwenya. ‘He only attends classes in the mornings and dodges from school at break-time; he’s still traumatised and apparently wets his bed at night.”
Mpho was allegedly interrogated and tortured by his former teacher, Thandi Nkosi (42) her husband Robert Ngubane (31) and two of their friends Sam Ntsibande (29) and Bongani Nkuna (31).
Nkosi returned to teach at Tiga Primary School and was only suspended with full pay on four months later in February, apparently because of departmental red tape. She appeared before a disciplinary committee from May 20 to May 22, the findings of which were due to be submitted to education department head Tim Mashinini by the end of last month. He will then advise provincial education MEC Craig Padayachee on what steps to take.
Mpho ran away from school on October 24 after Nkosi accused him of stealing her handbag with R2 700 in it.
The teacher sent a group of older boys to find him and they allegedly beat Mpho up before returning him to the school.
He was then taken to the KaNyamazane police station where the teacher refused to press charges. The two officers on duty instead gave her permission to take the boy away for ‘questioning”.
Mpho bursts into tears when recalling the abuse he suffered.
‘They took me to the Crocodile River and dunked me in the water but pulled me out before I could drown,” he remembers.
He was then allegedly taken to the teacher’s house in KaNyamazane where he was sjambokked and burnt with cigarettes and molten plastic all over his body.
‘They hung me up by my feet, one of them cut the rope and I fell on my head and they poured beer on my open wounds,” he says.
Mpho was tied up and locked in a room for some time before an unknown woman came to his rescue by slipping him a knife.
‘I cut the ropes and tried to escape but lost consciousness and collapsed behind the teacher’s house,” he says. ‘Later I regained consciousness and managed to get to a neighbour’s house.”
The neighbour rushed Mpho to Themba Hospital in a wheelbarrow where concerned hospital staff contacted the police and informed them about the boy’s condition the next day.
Ward nurse Rebecca Maile, who helped care for Mpho for five weeks, said the injuries to his genitals may prevent him from ever having children.
Lowveld police spokesman Captain Benjamin Bhembe says the matter against the two police officers who were on duty that day had been forwarded to the director of public prosecutions for a decision on what action to take.
For now Mpho remains reluctant to communicate but says he’s happy to study at his new school and to make new friends.
His classmate Sipho Mphothu (12) says he’s happy to have Mpho as his new friend even though he ‘doesn’t smile or joke much”.
Mgwenya believes Mpho needs urgent counselling: ‘We have asked KaNyamazane social workers to intervene but haven’t had any response from them so far. ‘Mpho needs counselling before he turns to bad company or anything that will influence him to quit school”.
Nkosi and her co-accused are currently out on R800 bail each. Initially charged with assault with the intent to do grevious bodily harm, they now face the charge of attempted murder. They will appear in the Nelspruit regional court on July 16 for trial.
– African Eye News Service
*Name has been changed