A bizarre love triangle resulted in a teacher being shot and learners stoning her attackers to death.
A LOVE triangle had a bizarre ending at a KwaZulu-Natal school when three outsiders were brutally killed and one of the school’s educators seriously wounded on Tuesday. The situation at Inanda’s Mbeka Secondary School was, however, quickly restored to normality.
According to the school’s principal, Thanda Goodman Mkhize, his institution was located in an extremely ”safe environment”. This serenity was sensationally shattered following dramatic developments at the school recently.
Two men abducted a third male and shot him in full view of his girlfriend, Hlengiwe Mkhize, an educator at the school. Mkhize was then shot in the face as her terrified colleagues ran for cover. She is in a serious but stable condition at a local hospital but her boyfriend was fatally wounded.
With the assistance of the local community, the two abductors were then chased and cornered by enraged learners of the school who kicked, trampled and stoned them to death. One of them was believed to have had an affair with Mkhize. The car in which the abductors arrived at the school was overturned and set alight.
According to Mkhize, the school-principal, his school has generally enjoyed peace and stability mainly because of the active backing of its immediate community. The school is also securely fence and its gate is always locked. It is believed that the men were let into the school premises by an unsuspecting learner.
”The men looked presentable and nothing seemed amiss, so they were let in,” explains Mkhize.
The bloodbath that followed coupled with the ensuing mayhem that saw the two intruders killed by the school’s learners, has rocked all stakeholders at the school. However, normality was quickly restored and within two days of the violent episode, attendance of over 95% was reported at the school.
”The school was visited by deputy education minister Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa and other departmental officials on Thursday and the situation seems to be returning to normal,” said Mkhize.
Stressing that their actions were motivated by their love for their teachers, Zwelabo Bhengu – a learner at the school – reportedly said: ”We chased them because we did not know whether they wanted to kill all our teachers.”
Despite the initial display of bravado, Mkhize said that as the magnitude of the incident sunk in, many pupils began to express regret at their actions. He estimated that at least one hundred of his male learners (out of a total population of 650) participated in the attack on the two assailants while many others looked-on.
”Under normal circumstances I would definitely have been able to restrain them but the learners reacted in the way they did because they were under the impression that their teacher was dead,” stressed Mkhize.
He emphasized that his school ”deeply regretted” the killings but added that ”the community was fully behind its children”.
”The community does not believe that armed strangers should be allowed to walk into school and have the ability to shoot, kill and maim with impunity. They have yet again demonstrated that they are solidly behind their school,” said Mkhize, adding that the younger learners at his school appeared to be traumatised after the incident.
”The department has promised that its psychological services will be made available to us,” remarked Mkhize. Running concurrently with the psychological intervention, the governing body has also invited community leaders to conduct traditional African rituals at the school to purge it of the negativity arising from the violent events as well as to cleanse pupils for having participated in the killings.
Mkhize said that the tragedy could become a valuable learning experience for his pupils. ”There is a lesson to be learnt from everything, no matter how tragic. It is ironic that on the eve of Women’s Day a wanton act of violence was perpetrated against one of our female educators.”
Captain Vish Naidoo, spokesperson for the SAPS in KZN, did not rule out the possibility of the school’s learners being arrested. ”Investigations are still underway and we are going to require the co-operation of all stakeholders at the school.”
Naidoo said that the incident was ”yet another reminder that the public should never take the law into their own hands”. ”All we require is for the community to work with us and allow the wheels of justice to run its course.”
Mkhize promised his school’s full co-operation so that the police could complete their investigations. ”But we hope that the investigating officers will understand that everything unfolded in the heat of the moment. In fact, our learners were quite prepared to co-operate with the police and willingly handed over the gun that they had seized from one of the abductors.”
As calm once again descends over his school’s campus, Mkhize is optimistic that his staff and learners will be able to put the incident behind them and forge ahead with their academic programme.
”We live in a society where violence has become an everyday reality so this is nothing out of the ordinary for many of us. However, in this instance, we have to remember that we are dealing with impressionable minds,” he concludes.
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, August 11, 2000.
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