An 11-year-old girl’s life changed irrevocably on a Monday morning in June last year when a security guard refused to allow her to enter her primary school in rural KwaZulu-Natal because she wasn’t wearing a mask.
The grade 7 Mnyamana Primary pupil was instructed to return home, 5.2km away, to fetch her face mask.
On her way, she was accosted by an older boy who allegedly raped her in a forest between the school and her village, and threatened her with death if she reported him.
Her hands were tied with her school tie and her socks were shoved inside her mouth during the assault.
Now the girl’s father and two sisters of her late maternal grandmother are suing the education department for R26m for the girl’s pain, suffering and damages brought about by its “negligence” — including R1m each for emotional shock, trauma and grief for six family members.
In papers filed at the Pietermaritzburg high court this week, the family says the department did not have a child-friendly protocol in implementing the Disaster Act and failed to provide proper training to its security guard to deal with delicate situations, which caused him to act in a “reckless” manner towards the girl.
The family said that despite a national education department directive that all schools be ready, the school failed to provide masks for pupils who didn’t have them. In addition, there was no protection provided for the child, who possibly faced danger walking home alone in an isolated area.
They are also asking for the child to be provided with free private boarding school education in a girls-only establishment, and a bursary for her tertiary education.
Within three days of the incident, the sister of her late grandmother, who has raised the girl from the age of one, took her back “home” to Durban.
“She has been my child since she was one. Her grandmother and mother passed away and she only went to live with her father in [the village] because I needed him to sort out a birth certificate for her before high school. I also wanted them to get to know each other, but I was going to fetch her this year for high school,” the woman said.
• 5.2km - The distance from the girl’s school to her rural home
• R20m - The amount the family is claiming in damages for pain, shock, trauma and grief for the girl. They also want R1m each for six family members
— In Numbers
A suspect was arrested and charged with rape after the girl identified him in a line-up. The trial is due to start in May.
“She asks, ‘Why me, what did I do for this to happen to me?’ As a parent I can only console her but I too am hurt, I have no answers, no resources to get her the help I believe she needs,” the woman said.
Lawyers for the family told the high court the family will for the rest of their lives feel the consequences of the “emotional grief, shock, trauma” of the rape, which they said was a direct result of the actions of the education department through its employee and the school. Provincial education department spokesperson Kwazi Mthethwa said it will challenge the application and the merits of the case will be heard in court.
The girl’s great-aunt said: “Nobody, not even the school principal, has done a follow-up on the status of the child, and when we got a lawyer to ask them for compensation, the department said let us meet in court. They rejected negotiating a settlement outside court.”
The girl received six counselling sessions at two government hospitals and medical assistance immediately after she was raped.
The great-aunt said the girl needs specialised counselling, but the family can’t afford it. She said that before the rape, the girl had been a happy child. Now, “she has overwhelming feelings of anger, sadness, she sleepwalks. Sometimes when you talk to her she is looking at you but does not respond.”
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