RE: Statement of COSAS after the death of a learner corporally punished
The Congress of South African students is angered by the reports of the death of yet another learner after she was punished corporally in Nelspruit, Mbombela (see Lowvelder report). These reports surface barely four months after the death of a learner who was beaten with a belt by a teacher and passed on afterwards. As the Congress of South African students we are saying enough is enough. The South African Schools Act and the constitution of the country have long outlawed corporal punishment with the SACE document putting a further stamp on it.
What shakes us the most is the fact that the teachers who continue beating up learners are well aware that it is incorrect but do it anyway resulting to physically harming our fellow students severely or worse killing them. At this point we are only able to speak about reported cases of learners who are beaten up in schools but we do not have an account of cases which go on unreported. The Department of Basic Education is clearly failing to ensure that teachers work according to the law of South Africa.
As the Congress of South African Students we are calling on all learners in South Africa to fight fire with fire. Learners in each school are a majority and possess the necessary capacity to stand up and fight for their rightful human rights. No teacher or any other staff member has a right to physically manhandle any learner let alone ending up killing them.
The Department of Education in Mpumalanga must close down that school where the learner in question schooled, pending investigations and necessary alternative arrangements for learners to continue learning should be made. The learners should also go through a process of trauma counselling. The teacher in question must be taken out of the system immediately and face charges of assault with an intention to cause grave bodily harm and murder.
The death of one student after being beaten up is an indication of the masculinity that some teachers in some schools think they possess over our students, now is the time to send out a clear message of what we mean when we say enough is enough. All students should marshal on in our program of fighting fire with fire. We are well aware that the progressive teachers union SADTU always speaks against corporal punishment when addressing teachers so the continuation of such is as a result of certain individuals who do not pay attention to South African Law and even their own union. Students must unite and continue to struggle until our schools are a conducive learning environment, where they are comfortable to learn without any fear.
Statement issued by COSAS President General, Collen Malatji, August 6 2014
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