Further accusations of assault at Gauteng school

WITH four teachers about to be provisionally suspended this week for misconduct at Parktown Boys’ High School, one has been implicated in hitting another child in his class.

Earlier this week, Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi visited the school again to announce the suspensions publicly. This comes after an external investigation into nine teachers accused of secondary victimisation of pupils involved in last year’s sexual-abuse scandal.

It was revealed an assistant water polo coach had allegedly sexually assaulted pupils at the school, with the number of complainants rising to more than 30 in the past few months.

Teachers stood accused of making light of the abuse in front of the victims, alongside allegations of racism and physical assault.

This week, Lesufi said he believed the external investigation had been scuppered by a “culture of silence” ingrained at the school among pupils and teachers. “The culture of silence impeded the gathering of evidence,” he said. Four teachers were implicated in allegations of racism, two employed by the school governing body, the other two by the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE), he added.

“The said educators will be on precautionary suspension from the school before the end of this week. A disciplinary hearing will be held at a later stage. There was an allegation that learners were smeared with deep heat on their private parts. No evidence was found. We strongly believe the culture of silence might have played a major role,” he said.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that one of the school’s teachers, Nik Muiznieks, resigned after an alleged racist, threatening rant directed at boys involved in the sexual abuse scandal.

One of his colleagues, director of sport and maths literacy, Remo Murabito, was also charged with assaulting one of his pupils in class.

The pupil and his mother claimed Murabito had slapped the child and stomped on his foot, prompting them to open the assault case against the teacher.

However, Independent Media has seen affidavits handed to the police by other learners in the same class, where Murabito is accused of teaching poorly and hitting another child.

The second pupil confirms the first’s claims of being hit, then adds that he too was slapped in the face by Murabito.

A third

pupil

accuses Murabito of “not teaching” during their classes, with a fourth corroborating this.

At the time of the initial article on the first assault, Murabito admitted to the incident through the school’s crisis management public relations agency, Vuma Reputation Management.

However, when asked for comment this time, the agency directed queries to the GDE and SGB.

The GDE did not comment on the new allegations, confirming only that Murabito was one of the four teachers suspended.

SGB head Jim Pooley said he was deeply concerned to hear of the alleged incident.

However, he said the school had not seen the affidavit by the pupil.

Meanwhile, Lesufi implored learners to break the culture of silence, speak out against any violation and report cases without any fear of being victimised.

“Any person who wants to tarnish the image of the school will be dealt with accordingly,” he said.

PICTURE: TIMOTHY BERNARD Four Parktown Boys’ High School teachers have been suspended over misconduct.