Wrestling attack on schoolboy

A seven-year-old Newcastle pupil is recovering in hospital after he was attacked by a classmate.

The boy from the Qedizaba area, who cannot be named because he is minor, was apparently attacked in class.

Speaking to the Daily News on Wednesday, the boy’s grandmother said she was worried about his health, but confirmed he was recovering.

She said she had been told the incident had happened in class on August 23.

“He said when he was trying to sit down another pupil had pulled the chair and he fell on the floor. It was then that this other boy jumped on to his lower abdomen just as they do in wrestling.”

The next morning he told her he did not want to go to school because he was being beaten up by classmates.

“I just thought that he was being lazy and told him to go,” she said.

The grandmother said when he came back from school, he looked poorly and she sent him to her sister’s home for care.

“I thought he had the flu. He stayed with her on Saturday and only came home on Sunday. My biggest shock was that his bladder was swollen and that he had not been able to urinate since the Thursday when he was hurt.”

Bladder

The grandmother said she gave him some medicine to help clean his bladder and it was only then that he urinated. She then took him to the clinic where she was told nothing was wrong with him.

“The child continued to not look well and appeared to be in pain.” Again she took him to the clinic “and this time, they gave him Panados, but on Friday he was really bad and I took him to the hospital and that is where he was finally admitted”.

The grandmother said when he arrived at the hospital, he could hardly walk because of the pain and could not bend.

“I heard he is doing better. I can’t go see him now because he cries for me and I am not well.

“The mother of the child who apparently did this came and spoke to me; she told me that her son has been suspended. I appreciate that she came. None of his teachers have come to me and it’s worrying because it happened at school,” she said.

The school principal, who did not want to be named, told the Daily News that media reports about the boy were untrue.

She said she was compiling a report of what had happened, which she would submit to the Department of Education. She said the boy was on the mend.

“I went to see the child in hospital today and he was playing. He is okay and is walking. He will be fine. If anyone wants to know the truth, they must speak to the child,” she said.

KZN Education Department spokesman Muzi Mahlambi said the department was investigating the matter.

mpume.madlala@inl.co.za