Zukile Majova
The junior school principal who forced an 11-year-old boy into a pit latrine to recover his cellphone has been arrested and detained at Ugie Police Station.
The incident at Luthuthu Junior Secondary School at Ncembu village near Ugie in the Eastern Cape has forced the Eastern Cape Department of Education to launch an investigation into the matter and suspend the principal from the school.
Yesterday Scrolla.Africa reported how the principal’s phone fell through the dilapidated structure into the feces below.
The principal then instructed older learners to use buckets to reduce the amount of water and urine inside the pit toilet so a lighter and leaner person could be lowered in.
The Grade 6 learner was then told to strip naked, and lowered into the pit with a rope tied under his armpits.
Petros Majola of Khula Community Development Project, an organisation that advocates for Children’s Rights in the Eastern Cape, is leading the fight for justice.
“Our top priority is to restore the self esteem and confidence in this boy so that he is able to cope as currently he is laughed at by his peers.”
Community member Sithembiso Gwampa said he went with other villagers to the school to enquire about the ill treatment of the boy but was dismissed by teachers without any explanation.
Members of the community then called the Khula Community Development Project because the orphaned boy has no one else to fight his cause.
He lives with his 75-year-old maternal grandmother, Nosakhele Mgqwamba, who says the boy is no longer fond of going to school.
