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Thobile Ngema* is an unemployed, single mother of a nine-year-old boy, Thulani* with whom she shares a rented backroom in Orlando East.
Although she lays claim to very few material possessions, Ngema prides herself for being able to work piece jobs that earn her enough money to give Thulani a decent education – something she wasn’t afforded.
On Friday, Ngema joined a group of other disgruntled residents and parents in a picket outside the Orlando East police station in Soweto. It was led by the Orlando East constituency head for the Democratic Alliance, Tsepo Mlhongo.
“There have been 88 child molestation cases reported to this very police station. All of the children are learners at AB Xuma School, some are my son’s classmates. As a mother I’m now worried about the safety of my own child,” said the visibly distraught Ngema.
“Our children spend more time at school than they do at home. So, for there to be a situation like this – where 88 cases of sexual assault are reported to a police station and one of their very own tasked with preparing these children for court takes advantage of their vulnerability and assaults them again – is just heartbreaking and unacceptable,” said Ngema.
The single mother was referring to the more than 80 primary school children who were sexually assaulted, allegedly at the hands of a scholar patrolman who was meant to be keeping them safe.
After reporting the case to the Orlando East police station it as then alleged that a forensic investigator, who was meant to prepare the abused children for court, assaulted two of them.
“These young girls were reportedly ordered to strip naked and were fondled by the investigating officer, who was meant to investigate earlier incidents of abuse that had taken place at the school. The level of repeat victimisation breaks the trust of these young children and cannot be tolerated,” said Mlhongo.
Mlhongo explained that his party had organised this picket because this was not the first school to have an employee being accused of the mass assault of learners.
“This year, in Thokoza, there was a similar case where plus/minus 10 learners were assaulted by a school employee.”
Mlhongo also claimed that the accused officer was still working and had not been suspended from his duties. He also claimed that his colleagues were attempting to cover up the officer’s involvement as they claim that “there was another individual with him and he is the one who apparently assaulted the two learners not the officer himself”.
Head of communications at the station, Captain Mbenze (who refused to give City Press her first name), said she could not comment on the matter since the case was being dealt with by Child Protection Services in Meadowlands.
However, the spokesperson for Orlando East police, Colonel Mjabuliseni Buthelezi was available to accept the memorandum and said that he would hand it over to his seniors.
“We would like to ask that he [the officer accused of assaulting the two learners] be suspended with immediate effect and that from now on female officers be assigned to cases relating to female victims of sexual assault,” Mlhongo said
Ngema concurred: “I think it would be safer if even the school hired more female guards and not male as I think our children would be a lot safer under their care.
“I would like to see justice for all the assaulted children and our school returning to be a safe learning environment that provides our children with the skills that will afford them a better tomorrow than the one we are giving them.”
* Names have been changed to protect the identity of the children.
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