A NORTHERN Province primary school principal was arrested on Monday for the statutory rape of a pupil of 15 who bore a child.
Aged 48, he is from Ga-Molepo village near Burgersfort, and is due to appear in the Nebo District Court on Wednesday.
The head of Hlogotlou detectives, Inspector Kgobeng Magakwe, on Tuesday said the man was arrested at the school.
Magakwe said police started investigating a few weeks ago, when schools were on holiday, and the principal’s home address was not known at first.
He allegedly started abusing the girl last year, when she was 15-year-old pupil at his school.
”He allegedly gave her bus fare for 60km return trips away from the village where he was staying, so he could meet her in his car,” said Magakwe.
The girl, now 16, claimed this happened many times.
At first she kept quiet, but finally told her parents in January when she gave birth to a boy, and they withdrew her from the school.
A 50-year-old man appeared briefly in the Nebo District Court on Monday in connection with raping a 12-year-old girl.
July Petrus Skhosana, of Sterkfontein village, was not asked to plead and was remanded in custody to April 17.
Neighbours allegedly found him raping the girl in his home last Wednesday, after enticing the girl with sweets.
— African Eye News Service, April 13, 2000.