-
A person holds up a sign against shielding of rapists.
Civil rights movement Not in My Name has called on the Basic Education Department to overhaul the way schools and officials handle the rape of learners.
This follows public outrage at school officials’ lack of cooperation after the rape of a seven-year-old girl on school premises in the Eastern Cape.
The incident allegedly happened at Bergview College last October.
The girl’s parents took to social media to lament the school’s failure to deal with the matter. This led to an online petition seeking justice for the learner.
The provincial education department has threatened to shut down the school if the principal does not cooperate with authorities.
Not in My Name co-founder Themba Masango says, “This is a horrific, heinous crime that has been committed on a seven-year-old child – and we are standing together with all forward-thinking South Africans who are saying that there needs to be quick institutional change, there needs to be justice, and it needs to be served quickly and venomously to those who are perpetrators of this heinous crime. Most importantly, we want to condemn the nonchalant way that the school, particularly the principal, behaved towards this incident of this heinous crime – in taking this matter so lightly.”
VIDEO | Justice for Cwecwe | Bureaucracy should not stand in our way: Themba Masango
