‘Kyle didn’t stand a chance,” says Estelle Kunneke. Her 16-year-old son ran away from Ethokomala, a reform school in Kinross, Mpumalanga, on February 3. He has not been heard from since.
More than a tale of one youngster’s mistakes, this is also a story of how he has been failed by all those tasked to care for him.
Since the age of nine Kyle had been in and out of boarding schools, landing up in a reformatory school when he was 13 for stealing a cellphone at a shopping mall. He was later committed to Ethokomala for keeping watch while two other boys stole from a school’s tuck shop.
Ethokomala is one of only two reform schools in the country that caters for learners who are convicted criminals. Youngsters from all provinces convicted of anything from petty theft to murder are committed to Ethokomala for as long as two years. Kyle had nine months left to serve.
The bulk of the learners, aged between 13 and 18, are in the foundation phase, and for some, their time at Ethokomala will be their first and last experience of receiving an education.
Kunneke claims that Kyle’s behaviour has gone from bad to worse. Says Kunneke, ‘Since being at Ethokomala, Kyle has got 29 tattoos and started smoking dagga. He joined a satanic circle and was sodomized by other boys.”
The school has a gangster culture – modelled on the types to be found in prisons – and boys show their gang membership through the tattoos they sport.
Kyle also tried to commit suicide by slashing his wrists and has run away from the school before. ‘Kyle would rather face the dangers on the street than the dangers in the school,” says Kunneke.
The last time she saw Kyle was when he went back to Ethokomala after the school holidays on January 8.
According to Kunneke, she was only notified by Ethokomala that her son had run away four days later. Far from satisfied with the steps taken to find Kyle, Kunneke made her own efforts to find him, including contacting the Teacher with his story.
But she says she’s had no support from the authorities: ‘The more questions I ask, the more doors get slammed in my face,” says Kunneke.
Principal of Ethokomala, Koos Ludik, points out that the departments of welfare and justice are legally responsible for Kyle.He also takes issue with Kunneke’s account of her son’s absence. ‘We informed the police that Kyle had absconded again, and through our social worker made all the necessary calls to the mother,” says Ludik. ‘Kyle has run away 22 times before. This boy has been put in different schools his whole life since the age of two. His mother has continuously moved to different areas.”
Ludik also disputes that Kunneke has been supportive of her child: ‘She did not want to take him home for the holidays and even though she cares for Kyle there is no strong bond between them.
‘If Kyle is found he will be put in a place of safety,” says Ludik. ‘He will probably abscond from there again. But if not, the social worker will try to have his sentence extended so that we can put him in a rehabilitation center for his drug problem.”
If you have any information on the whereabouts of Kyle, please call Estelle Kunneke on 084 333 6520, or Koos Ludik on (017) 6871177