The embattled principal of the Ithuteng Trust School in Kliptown, Jackie Maarohanye, and 72 other people, have been arrested after a journalist was assaulted and held hostage at the weekend.
Gauteng police spokesperson Constable Sefako Xaba said 72 of Maarohanye’s supporters were arrested at the school on Sunday afternoon, while she was arrested in Pretoria on Sunday night.
Reporter Vusi Ndlovu and driver Mabu Nkadimeng from the Sowetan newspaper were held hostage on Saturday for seven hours by a group of people at the Soweto school.
Xaba said Maarohanye’s supporters, including elderly people and children, tried to resist arrest.
”They locked the school gates and, when police forced entry, they threw sticks and stones at the police, injuring some of them.”
Ndlovu had arranged for an interview with Maarohanye and, when he got there at noon, he was met by a ”large” group of people.
”They allowed the men in, pretending to be taking them to Maarohanye. Once inside, they locked them in a room where they assaulted and insulted them,” said Xaba.
The group, who apparently had scheduled a meeting at the school, demanded to see the editor of the newspaper. Ndlovu phoned news editor Willie Bokala, who alerted the police.
Police negotiators managed to release the men around 6.30pm. A case of kidnapping and assault was opened at the Kliptown police station
Sowetan and Sunday World editor Thabo Leshilo condemned Maarohanye’s ”deplorable” act in the strongest possible terms.
Maarohanye, also known as Mama Jackie and once dubbed the ”Angel of Soweto”, made headlines when she was accused of defrauding donors of millions of rands last year.
She handed herself over to the police in October last year for cases including public violence and malicious damage to property.
Police issued a warrant for Maarohanye’s arrest on October 10 after pupils from her school took to the streets, burning tyres and blocking roads.
They were protesting against the police’s alleged failure to solve the death of a fellow pupil in a fire at the school. A 19-year-old pupil died in the fire and two others, also young men, escaped the blaze.
Maarohanye allegedly insisted that a hut on the premises of the trust had been petrol-bombed. The two survivors told the police that on that night they went to sleep with a burning brazier in the hut. Forensic reports suggested no evidence of a petrol bomb.
At the time, police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said Maarohanye was ”instrumental” in the protest by the pupils and that was why she was arrested.
”These violent protests left five people injured and property damaged. A resident’s house was also broken into and several items stolen and burned,” Martins-Engelbrecht said.
Maarohanye and the group was expected to appear in the Protea Magistrate’s Court on Monday. – Sapa