Chairperson of Mamelodi Local and Long Distance Taxi Association (MALLDTA) Stemer Monageng is relieved that the Deputy Principal of Bronkhorstspruit Primary School has finally handed himself to the police and appeared in court on Wednesday in relation to allegations of having sexually abused a nine- year-old learner at the school.
Monageng expressed anger that the school’s authorities had delayed in reporting the matter to the police though they had apparently known about it for some time now.
“After hearing about the sexual abuse allegedly committed by the Deputy Principal of the school, I took it upon myself to force the school to report this matter to the police,” fumed Monageng.
“This matter has made us very sad as community leaders, parents and business people,” he said.
“This matter happened on the 13 of August but nothing was done about it by the school,” he said.
“I only got to know about this matter on 28 August and I has sleepless nights as a result of this matter,” enthused Monageng.
“On Monday this week we called a parents’ meeting and in that gathering we expressed the serious light with which we viewed the issue,” he explained.
“When I arrived at the school early in the week the implicated Deputy Principal told me to cool down and not shout, but I continued shouting because I was very angry about this incident,” said Monageng.
“After protracted negotiations on Monday with the authorities of the school regarding the way forward on this issue, we took a break and before we could return to the meeting later on at 2pm, we received a message indicating that the implicated Deputy Principal had handed himself to the police, and we are relieved and grateful that justice will now be served,” said Monageng.
He emphasised that this incident in itself, and the way the school handled it is a sad indication of the fact that learners are not safe at Bronkhorstspruit Primary School.
Besides being chairperson of MALLDTA, Monageng is also government liaison officer in the Gauteng National Taxi Alliance (GNTA) and also works as its co-ordinator as well as in its conflict resolution committee.
“The leadership of the school, that of the Education Department and even the police have displayed poor leadership skills in this matter,” he said.
“The sexually-victimised child regards her alleged abuser as a monster and it is our opinion that her attacker doesn’t belong to school but in jail,” he said.
After appearing at the Bronkhorstspruit Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, the Deputy Principal’s case was postponed to 11 September and Monageng has vowed that as leaders in the taxi industry they will be back in court on the says date.
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