Cape Town - An Ottery mother says she has been let down by the Western Cape Department of Education following the rape of her eight-year-old son allegedly by another pupil from the same school.
The pupil, whose name the Cape Times is withholding, has been at home for nearly six months because the alleged perpetrator attends the same school.
He had also encountered secondary abuse by his peers as they were aware of the incident. The boy now fears returning to the school.
His mother told the Cape Times on Monday that she had made contact with the department about a new placement for her child in January this year, but no action was taken and she has not been updated about the police investigation.
The incident occurred in bushes near their home early last year, his mother said, but she cannot remember the date.
Western Cape Education Department spokesperson Millicent Merton said the matter was on record and a school that could accommodate the learner was identified earlier this year, but the department could not make contact with the family.
However, the boy’s mother was surprised when she heard the department had been trying to reach her.
The angry mother said: “I called them numerous times, filled out forms, but nothing happened. When I made a scene at the district office in Plantation Road in Ottery, I was chased away.”
The victim’s aunt, who placed a call on behalf of the mother, showed the Cape Times a logged call, placed to their district office on May 16.
“They told me you must understand our schools are full and children are on a waiting list,” the aunt said.
The boy’s mother, whose name is also being withheld to protect her child, recalled: “It was a hot day and he was out playing. After five (5pm) that day a girl came to the house to ask me if I knew about my boy.
“My initial response was ‘what did he do now again’. She replied, it is not what he did but what was done to him. She said my boy was raped and she told me who it was.”
His mother immediately went to the flat where the perpetrator lived.
“I told his brother what happened, but he simply wanted nothing to do with the issue because he said it was ‘an old thing’.”
The boy’s mother said she is “depressed” as she does not know how to deal with the matter. Her son is undergoing trauma counselling.
She said: “I try to keep myself busy with community work to keep my mind off things. They robbed him of his education.”
The family acknowledge that the perpetrator is too young for prison, so they would want him to be rehabilitated instead.
“There is definitely something wrong with him,” the mother said, adding that there were two more victims. She went to their parents and they called the police.
Police spokesperson FC van Wyk said the matter was being processed.
The parents had also involved the community, by making the matter public in a community group chat.
Community leader Melanie Arendse, a former ward councillor in the area, said she had intervened after the residents threatened to kill the alleged perpetrator.
“Because it is a child and the community wanted to kill him, we then got a youth organisation called Life Changers involved. The boy (alleged perpetrator) was then placed in the care of another family.”
The provincial Department of Social Development had not yet responded to queries at the time of going to press.