Johannesburg - While fighting outside the school gates, as other pupils watched, Nkosentsha Mdluli, 19, raised a sjambok to whip a former schoolmate standing in front of him.
But the teenager grabbed the sjambok with one hand, and with the other, stabbed Nkosentsha in the chest.
And as Nkosentsha collapsed, blood oozing from his chest and asking for an ambulance, his 19-year-old attacker ran into the school and told teachers that he had stabbed someone.
This is what allegedly transpired outside the gates of Magaliesburg State School on Wednesday afternoon after pupils had finished writing exams.
Two groups - one comprising pupils from Magaliesburg State School on the West Rand and another made up of boys who don’t attend school - allegedly clashed outside the grounds. It was not the first time, with witnesses saying the previous fight took place last Friday.
Nkosentsha, who dropped out of school in March, was wearing his old school uniform at the time of the stabbing. His mother, Prudence Banda, 49, could not explain why he was in uniform.
She said Nkosentsha was in Grade 9. He had been failing and decided to drop out because he did not want to attend classes with much younger pupils.
It is not clear what caused the fights, with pupils saying Nkosentsha was a bully and that the fight was over a girl. Others claimed it was a gang fight.
On Thursday, the attacker’s father was in shock. The father-of-four is a widower, who lost his wife last year. He lives with three of his four children and his nephew.
“The children were arrested on Thursday. I don’t know what happened, but I heard that a group of boys went to the school and hurled stones at my son and nephew.”
The man cannot be named as it would identify the teenager, who is yet to appear in court.
But West Rand police spokesman Warrant Officer Solomon Sibiya said only one teenager was arrested and charged with murder.
At Nkosentsha’s home, Banda wept as she recalled the moment she saw her son lying dead on the ground.
On Wednesday afternoon, Banda’s husband had called her several times, asking her to go to the police station because their son had been stabbed. At the time, she thought it was a minor injury.
When she got to the police station, nobody told her what had happened, but she kept hearing the words “murder scene”. Only when she was taken to the school and saw his lifeless body with a gaping hole in the chest, did she realise her son was dead.
Education Department spokesman Charles Phahlane said a team had been sent to the school to help investigate the incident. They did not know what caused the fight.
Other cases of violence at schools:
* May 2013: An 11-year-old boy faces possible amputation of his arm after bullies who wanted his lunch money at Retlilepele Primary School, Pretoria, hanged him from the crossbar of a soccer goalpost with a belt. They also beat him. The goalpost broke, crushing his hand.
* November 2012: Tsudzukani Mthombeni shoots and kills fellow pupil Nkululeko Ndlovu with his mother’s service pistol at Phineas Xulu Secondary School.
* January 2012: A video clip showing an assault on a 15-year-old schoolgirl at Krugersdorp High School surfaces. In it, the attacker walks across the playground. She and her friends surround the victim. She raises her arm and brings a bottle down on the girl’s head.
The Star