Moyahabo Mabeba
Someone posted a picture of “ugly expensive shoes” on Facebook and said every school has someone who wears them.
Jokingly, Khutso Mabiletja responded to the post naming one of her teachers as someone who wears them.
But her teacher at Kopano Senior Secondary School in Lebowakgomo didn’t take kindly to the post and allegedly threatened the girl.
Khutso Mabiletja, 19, was found hanging from the roof beams in her house on Sunday.
According to Khutso’s grandmother, Dinao Mabiletja, the angry teacher came to her home on Saturday to tell her how unhappy she was with the comment.
Dinao said: “The teacher was fuming. She was hurling insults and threatening my grandchild. I tried to calm her down and she left. I thought the matter had been peacefully settled.”
The granny said the teacher later returned with her children and her husband, a former municipal councilor in the Lepelle Nkumpi local municipality, and continued with the threats.
Dinao told Scrolla.Africa that the teacher told Khutso she knew the learner was writing a mathematics test on Monday and told her she would not write the test.
“She even told her that for as long as she is still teaching at that school she will never pass grade 12. She said Khutso will do her matric until she is the same age as me. Those words really hurt my grandchild,” said the gogo.
Dinao said at first the teacher told the terrified learner to write a public apology but when Khutso was about to write it the teacher took the pen away and told her she will make an apology in every class on Monday.
The teacher, according to Dinao, told Khutso that if she didn’t make a public apology, she would kill her.
“My grandchild chose to kill herself instead of being killed by someone else. We found her hanging from the roof,” said Dinao.
Witness Tiva, the spokesperson for the Provincial Department of Social Development said the department has dispatched a team of social workers to the family to provide them with psychological support.
Tiva said: “MEC Nkakareng Rakgoale has urged parents and children to always be against cyber bullying.”
Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo, spokesperson for the Limpopo police said that they have opened an inquest docket.
