Roodepoort schoolboys in bust up over K-word slur

Roodepoort High School pupil Dominic Luboya outside Roodepoort police station on Tuesday. Picture: Nhlanhla Phillips/The Star

Roodepoort High School pupil Dominic Luboya outside Roodepoort police station on Tuesday. Picture: Nhlanhla Phillips/The Star

Published Feb 8, 2017

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Johannesburg - Roodepoort High School is at the centre of a racism scandal after one of its pupils had to present himself to the police for assaulting a fellow pupil he claims called him a “k****r”.

The incident comes in the wake of raging debates on the constitutionality of the mooted Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill.

The attack is said to have happened last Tuesday during a lunch break.

The pupil, Dominic Luboya, 19, presented himself to the Roodepoort police on Tuesday morning accompanied by his family and lawyer Marco Lamberti.

They spent several hours at the station, and Luboya was expected to appear in court today after he was released with a warning.

Recounting events to The Star on Tuesday at the station, Luboya said the drama unfolded when he and his friends walked into the alleged victim, who was wearing a dirty and ragged shirt.

“It was dirty on one sleeve so I asked if I could offer him a shirt. Instead of responding with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’, he said: “Ek soek nie jou k***** hemp nie” (I don’t want your k***** shirt),” Luboya alleged.

At that point, he recalled: “I grabbed him by his bag and asked what he had just said.” The other learner allegedly responded, again in Afrikaans: “I said I do not want your dirty k***** shirt.”

“My friend, who was with me, asked him why he was swearing at us. At this point other pupils started gathering. All the while, he (the other learner) carried on swearing,” he claimed.

The confrontation intensified, he said, but the two had to be separated by a school prefect just after the buzzer went off.

Luboya alleged that the school refused to hear his version of events, saying he was being targeted because there was a video of him assaulting the victim but none of him being racially abused.

He accused the school of turning a blind eye to previously reported racial complaints.

“That video doesn’t tell the full story, it just shows me hitting him,” he said, admitting to having assaulted the 16-year-old.

Luboya, who is on five-day suspension for the assault, was expected to appear before the school’s disciplinary committee today.

School deputy principal Piet Crous, when approached for comment, said the school was not aware of the racial slur allegation allegedly made by the alleged victim.

Asked why Luboya had not been allowed to give his version of events, Crous said he had kicked him out of his office because of the pupil’s “unacceptable tone”.

“I told him I’d only listen to him in the presence of his parents. He was shouting and screaming, so I asked him to leave. Even when he was standing at my burglar gate, he was still shouting,” he said.

He said he was made aware of the incident by a member of the school’s governing body on the day the incident happened.

“I called them both in in the morning and asked them why they were fighting,” he said.

Crous said the alleged victim asked the school not to pursue charges. However, Crous said he could not turn a blind eye to the assault as a video was circulating and he had to notify the school’s parents.

After insisting on seeing the video, the victim’s parents opened an assault charge last week, he said.

The Gauteng Education Department had not responded at the time of publication.

When asked if such racial incidents could potentially be an issue for the courts if the proposed hate crimes bill was passed, Professor Pierre de Vos, a constitutional law expert, said this was unlikely.

“In any criminal case, the court goes on what can be proved. The court, based on the evidence presented before it, has to decide

which of the witnesses is more credible.”

The bill was approved by the cabinet for public comment in October last year and seeks to criminalise prejudicial remarks. It carries a jail term of up to three years.

The Star

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