The Eastern Cape education MEC has provisionally accepted liability for failing to ensure the safety of an 11-year-old Susannah Fourie Primary School pupil who was pulled into a “ghost house” during a school fundraiser and allegedly raped.
The shocking crime, which occurred at the Despatch school in May 2016, was finally brought to the fore in court papers before the Gqeberha high court.
Now, with a nearly R6.5m damages claim against MEC Fundile Gade and his department, the issue of merit and quantum must be argued.
It is claimed that on May 4 2016, the school in Bothasrus held a fundraiser filled with activities, including a tour of a so-called ghost house.
To enter, pupils paid R2 to a school staff member stationed at the door of the girls’ toilets.
The toilet windows were blacked out with plastic bags and schoolboys were given masks to frighten those who entered. It was all meant to be a scary yet fun experience.
But in a statement given to the police by the then 11-year-old girl shortly after the rape, the pupil said she had gone to the ghost house with a group of friends while a staff member was present.
She decided not to go inside as she was scared of the dark.
A short while later, after her friends returned and told her that it was not that scary, the girl decided to give it a try.
At about 10.45am the girl approached the entrance to the ghost house, but this time there was apparently no staff member present, only a more senior pupil, who accepted her R2 entrance fee.
Once inside, the girl said she was grabbed by two masked boys and pulled into a toilet cubicle.
“While they were pulling me they were talking in Afrikaans,” she said in her statement.
“They pulled me to the last toilet. There was a lot of shouting and screaming.
“While I was standing there one of them held both my arms and I felt another pull down my panties. The one who was holding my arms tripped me.
“I fell on the floor.”
That is when the girl was allegedly raped.
The girl claimed that when she finally managed to kick open the cubicle door, the alleged assailants had run away.
She immediately reported the matter to the deputy principal, who then relayed the incident to the principal at the time, Andre Crous.
The girl was taken to hospital and the matter reported to the police.
In his statement to the police at the time, Crous confirmed the allegations of pupils wearing masks in the ghost house and that the person in charge would have — or should have — known who they were.
He did not mention anything in terms of school staff being absent from the entrance of the ghost house at any stage.
Crous said it was the first time such an incident had occurred at the school.
According to court papers later filed in connection with the civil claim, the girl said she had suffered a psychotic breakdown and had been hospitalised after twice attempting to take her own life.
Due to the fact that the alleged assailants had been wearing masks, the girl was unable to identify them.
Police spokesperson Captain Gerda Swart said a case of rape had been opened at the time but no arrests had been made.
The girl’s parents later instituted a damages claim against the MEC’s office,, claiming that school staff employed by the education department “owed a legal duty of care towards [the parents] of the minor child”.
They further claimed that the school had been negligent on at least 12 points, including that the school organised:
- An activity that by its very nature was unsafe;
- An activity that was inside the toilet where male and female pupils and an adult male were allowed to be present, behind closed doors, and in a confined space without supervision; and
- An activity where male pupils donned masks to frighten others.
Part of the damages claim is for past and future medical expenses, loss of amenities of life, loss of potential earning capacity as her schooling career had suffered significantly due to the incident, and general damages.
The girl is claiming a total of R6.495,886.85.
Court papers revealed that in 2019 the office of the MEC had entered a plea in which it conceded negligence on the part of the school.
The office has however disputed the damages claimed, requesting proof thereof.
Gade’s spokesperson, Vuyiseka Mboxela, said on Friday: “The matter is still unfolding. The MEC and the department are respecting the legal process taking place in court.”
Mboxela said the matter was still sub judice and the department would comment further once the trial had been finalised.
Numerous calls to the two listed numbers for the school went unanswered.
The matter has been set down for trial on February 6.
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