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Bullying in Benoni school to be investigated

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The Gauteng department of community safety has said that they will investigate why Noorderlig Gekombineerde High School had not taken action against the learners who reportedly bullied a Grade 7 learner who died on Tuesday after sustaining head injuries.

The incident allegedly took place on school premises earlier this month where the 13-year-old boy was protecting his elder brother from bullies. An older boy then started beating him, hitting his head in the fight. Another bully allegedly threw a soccer ball at the boy’s head.

Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane cried when she visited the Benoni school on Friday morning saying she was deeply disturbed by the death.

“We will investigate what happened and will make public our findings. What we want to find out is why did it take so long for the school to act against those who were bullying the children,” Nkosi-Malobane said.

She said they were waiting for the post-mortem results and that the police will decide on the charge to be laid against the learners involved.

The police have since opened an inquest docket.

In her address, Nkosi-Malobane said parents must monitor their children more closely so that the children avoid falling victim to bullying.

“We need to act immediately against bullying and make sure we act before something like this happens.”

The MEC was approached by pupils at the school after her address with information on which learners were responsible in the boy’s death.

The learners, however, were quickly told by teachers to return to class.

Nkosi-Malobane said her department had been planning to visit the East Rand area as part of an anti-bullying campaign titled Speak Out.

She said the purpose of the visit to the school was to create a safe environment for children to come forward and report bullying.

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