Zukile Majova
The Eastern Cape school principal who forced a young boy to go down a pit toilet to recover his cell phone has been fired and now faces criminal charges.
In July he will answer to various charges of child abuse in criminal court.
At the time of the incident on 14 March, Scrolla.Africa reported that the boy, who has no parents and lived with his grandmother, appeared to have been targeted by the principal because he had no one to speak up for him.
The Luthuthu Primary School in Ncembu village in Ugie is one of thousands of schools in South Africa where teachers use pit toilets to relieve themselves because there is no running water and no flush toilets.
On the day, the principal, Mr Lubeko Mgandela, had gone to the loo but his cell phone fell through the cracks in the floor of the rickety structure, dropping into the pool of faeces below.
The principal forced a number of learners to use buckets with ropes to reduce the sewage before forcing the boy to strip naked and be lowered into the pit with a rope tied under his arms.
Petros Majola, the leader of the Khula Community Development Project, took the boy’s case to the authorities resulting in the principal becoming the subject of three separate investigations.
“The first investigation was done by the employer and has ended with the Department dismissing him,” Majola said.
“The second investigation is being done by the South African Council for Educators and we are now waiting for its outcome.”
The principal is due to appear in court in July on charges relating to child abuse.
Eastern Cape Education spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said the principal pleaded guilty to the charge during the disciplinary hearing.
“As a result, he was dismissed and the Department is making sure that a new principal is appointed. For now the school’s HoD is the acting principal,” said Mtima.
