/ 19 April 2007

Schoolboys in court over stabbing of pupil

Four schoolboys appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday for allegedly stabbing a 17-year-old Greenside High School pupil, police said on Thursday.

The four youths were caught by six Greenside High matric boys outside the school on Wednesday afternoon after Moeketsi Motlhakoana was stabbed with a knife above his ear. He received stitches at Milpark hospital and was discharged the same day.

Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said the case was postponed to April 26 for further investigation. The boys will be charged with assault. ”They will also remain in police cells until their next court appearance.”

Three of the boys are said to attend Malvern High School in Kensington, while the fourth attends Langlaagte Technikon.

Motlhakoana, the son of a Johannesburg metro police officer, had intervened when he saw four boys attacking his cousin and robbing him of R20.

On Thursday, Motlhakoana’s mother, Louisa, a nurse, said her son was recovering well although she was worried by the constant bleeding in his ear and feared he might lose his hearing in that ear.

”There is blood that is trickling out of his ear. At first I thought that it was blood stains from yesterday. But I don’t think so any more as I have had to change his dressing several times,” she said. ”If the ear continues to bleed we will have to take him back to Milpark for a check-up.”

Motlhakoana’s friends and fellow school pupils visited him throughout the day.

His mother said she was still shocked at the ”hooliganism”.

”I don’t believe how our children can do such things,” she said. ”You always think that your child is safe at school. I have always read about children stabbing each other at schools in newspapers and never thought that it could happened to my own child.” — Sapa