FEARS OF SCHOOLBOY RAPE SPREE

Caretaker in court after assaulting 11-year-old Cops looking into nine similar cases

POLICE are investigating more than nine complaints of suspected rape of young boys at a primary school in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni.

This comes after a 22year-old sports assistant at the school was arrested for the rape of an 11-year-old boy at the weekend.

The man appeared in the Tembisa Magistrate ’ s Court yesterday. He is facing a charge of rape.

The case was postponed to today for arrangements for a bail application.

Gauteng department of basic education spokeswoman Phumla Sekhonyane said they were disturbed by what “appears to be a brutal pattern of abuse ”.

Sekhonyane said the department would take appropriate action upon the man ’ s release.

She suggested that more pupils could be affected, saying “they are already receiving counselling ”.

Police spokesman Constable Tebogo Sesing said: “We are investigating nine complaints of a similar nature against the same person.”

He said the boy left home on Saturday afternoon for activities at the school.

The boy allegedly told his mother that he was meeting the sports assistant there.

“When he did not come home at about 6pm the mother went to the [man] to look for the boy but she was told he was not there.”

The mother then went to the police station and reported him missing.

Sesing said police immediately began a search for the boy who arrived at his home at around 8pm while police were still there.

After the police left, the boy allegedly told his mother that the man had raped him. He said this had been happening since September last year.

The mother went to the police station and opened a case. The man was arrested shortly afterwards.

Yesterday, people living near the school said the incident had not come as a shock. A woman who did not want to be named said she had heard from other parents that there was a man who sexually abused children at the school. However, she did not know how to report the matter. She said no one wanted to talk openly about it.

“It was difficult to go to the police about it because it sounded like rumours. I am so relieved that someone reported that guy.”

Another parent said the man always had children around him and that they loved him.

“I did not believe it when I heard that he was sexually abusing those boys. There was nothing I could do because my children no longer go to this school.

“It is very dangerous to approach authorities about rumours because people can open a case against you, ” she said.