Teen injured ‘when teacher ran over head with truck’

A GRADE 12 pupil at Phandulwazi Agricultural boarding school in Alice is attending classes with a broken jaw, fractured facial bones and a damaged eye after a teacher allegedly ran over her head with his three-ton truck.

Zintle Magwa, 19, is suffering from chronic pain and a swollen face, her mother, Bulelwa Magwa, 49, said.

Eastern Cape provincial police spokeswoman Colonel Sibongile Soci confirmed yesterday police were investigating cases of reckless and negligent driving, and failure to report an accident.

Education spokesman Mali Mtima said the April 21 incident – in the school’s driveway – happened after three pupils reportedly decided to climb on to the moving truck.

He said Magwa fell off and was injured, but denied that the truck ran over her head.

Bulelwa Magwa refuted this, saying: “My daughter was not even part of that group [who climbed on the vehicle].

“She was run down by the truck and the wheel went over her head.”

Bulelwa said it was only when she reported the matter to the provincial education offices in Zwelitsha and laid a complaint with the police on April 28 that the matter began to be investigated.

Mtima said: “We offered our full support and contacted the immediate guardian, her uncle, when the accident happened.”