Boy critical after Guy Fawkes ‘rage’

Feebearing - Cape Town - 141105 - Children in Tafelsig runamuck on the celebration of Guy Fawkes day throwing paint and rocks at eachother. Pictured: A group of youngsters ready for paint war cross Spine Road on their way to a school. REPORTER: ILSE FREDERICKS. PICTURE: WILLEM LAW.

Feebearing - Cape Town - 141105 - Children in Tafelsig runamuck on the celebration of Guy Fawkes day throwing paint and rocks at eachother. Pictured: A group of youngsters ready for paint war cross Spine Road on their way to a school. REPORTER: ILSE FREDERICKS. PICTURE: WILLEM LAW.

Published Nov 6, 2014

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Cape Town - A six-year-old boy, believed to be the victim of a Guy Fawkes Day “rage”, is in a critical condition in hospital after being hit by a car.

Education authorities said it was believed that the boy – who couldn’t see properly or had become disoriented after being smeared with paint – had stepped into Sixth Avenue in Eastridge, Mitchells Plain, where he was run over.

Emergency Medical Services spokesman Robert Daniels said the boy sustained serious head injuries and was in critical condition. The incident occurred at about 12.30pm on Wednesday.

It has become a tradition in parts of Cape Town for people to smear one another with shoe polish and paint on Guy Fawkes Day, but children have also been intimidated and traumatised.

On Wednesday, groups of children and young adults, armed with paint buckets, shoe polish and pantyhose stuffed with sand and paint, caused havoc in several areas of the Cape Flats, by intimidating and smearing pupils.

Police had to be called in to protect children in some areas while some

schools were almost empty as panicked parents, fearing their children would become victims, kept them at home.

Several schools reported that 90 percent of their pupils were absent.

The Cape Argus spotted several children in Mitchells Plain and Bishop Lavis running around with buckets filled with paint, and stockings that appeared to be filled with sand and paint.

Several children who had been smeared with paint were also spotted.

Quentin Newman, principal of John Ramsay High School in Bishop Lavis, said the chairman of his school’s governing body had to take several detours on his way to a meeting at another school to dodge youngsters with paint, flour and eggs.

He said a collective effort was needed to stop “the madness” on Guy Fawkes day.

Desmond Snayer, principal of Modderdam Secondary in Bonteheuwel, said while the matric pupils had arrived for exams, 90 percent of the rest of the pupils were at home, too afraid to come to school.

Some parents had called to apologise for their children’s absence, saying they feared they would be the victims of smearing.

The Western Cape Education Department also received a report of children outside Woodlands High School who “were dressed up and have their faces painted” and trying to intimidate other pupils.

Principal Hennie Petersen confirmed this and said while 95 percent of pupils were at school, many pupils who lived in Heinz Park were absent. These pupils reported that groups of youngsters had been waiting for them on their way to school. Some had smeared their faces white.

Petersen said attendance had been better than in previous years since the school had scheduled the life orientation exams for all grades for on Wednesday.

Thurston Brown, principal of Manenberg Secondary, worried the wrong person would be targeted, leading to retaliation.

Education MEC Debbie Schäfer said it was worrying that intimidation and smearing on Guy Fawkes Day was continuing. “I don’t see the reasoning behind it. These are senseless activities that are keeping children out of school. Now it has had tragic consequences. It is nothing more than bullying.”

She said it was believed the six-year-old boy couldn’t see properly or had become disoriented after being smeared, and had stepped into the road.

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