School rape victims’ hell explained

30/06/2015. Kutumela Molefi Primary School in Lethabong Informal Settlement where four small girls were allegedly raped by four older boys from the school. Picture: Oupa Mokoena

30/06/2015. Kutumela Molefi Primary School in Lethabong Informal Settlement where four small girls were allegedly raped by four older boys from the school. Picture: Oupa Mokoena

Published Jul 3, 2015

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Pretoria - Anger, frustration, sadness, hatred, helplessness and worthlessness are just some of the emotions experienced by the young victims of rape from Kutumela Molefi Primary School in the east of Pretoria.

These feelings could become worse as the children went for weeks without any professional intervention or psycho-social support. “They should have been debriefed immediately and counselling initiated,” the Teddy Bear Clinic’s Dr Shaheda Omar said.

“One of the strongest and most disturbing emotions they would be experiencing now would be self-blame,” she said. This was a destructive feeling accompanied by the perception that they were ugly little girls who deserved no love, she said.

Omar gave an overview of the emotional trauma that four girls, aged between 7 and 9, could be going through after allegedly being brutally raped by a group of older boys.

They were apparently tied down and gang-raped by four boys on the schoolgrounds after other children had left for home three weeks ago. The incident went unreported and unattended to for about two weeks.

One mother said she had noticed that something was not right with her 9-year-old that evening, but brushed it aside when she failed to establish the cause. But she took notice when another of the assaulted children mentioned it to her two days later. She approached the school the following week, and was told to leave it to the principal to report to the police and launch an investigation into the matter.

But when nothing had been done by the following week, the father of another of the abused children checked with the police for progress on the case, only to find that no incident of rape had been reported.

The Boschkop police station’s child protection unit took two of the children for examination by a doctor on Tuesday. After confirmation they had been raped, a case was opened.

“The case has been transferred to Silverton and our investigation continues,” police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said on Thursday.

Behavioural specialists said the boys were troubled and possibly had a history of abuse in one form or another. “But they are obviously delinquent and extremely naughty to gang together and tie the little girls up,” Centurion therapist John Lehohla said.

They had discipline issues and needed to be reined in as soon as possible.

Piet du Toit, who works with children with behavioural problems, said: ”They also need therapy and extensive counselling, in addition to being made to account for the crime, so that they realise that this is wrong and they have a responsibility to treat other children right.”

He said aggression of this nature was a sign of something deep set in the mind of the boys, adding: “It can only be one or two with behavioural issues; the others could have acted out of peer pressure.”

But not all was lost for the rape victims, said Omar. “If the necessary support from professionals and family comes now, they have a chance at living a normal life,” he said.

If left unattended for too long, their feelings of being violated would turn into low self-esteem, and they would suffer further trauma from the stigma and humiliation once more people become aware.

“It is critical that they are given trauma therapy as soon as possible to allow them to shift the blame from themselves. Children are resilient and can bounce back with no problem, just as long as they receive the right treatment early enough,” Omar said.

The principal has been given seven days to explain why he should not be suspended by the Department of Education after allegations that he failed to report the incident.

The department served a letter of notification on the principal, only known as P Moemisi on Thursday. In it he was told of the department’s intention to investigate his conduct.

“We need to understand why he didn’t report the incident immediately,” spokeswoman Phumla Sekhonyane said.

Former principal Esau Matlala was erroneously named as the principal who responded to questions on the matter in a previous article by the Pretoria News. In fact, it was Moemisi who did so, insisting that he had reported the case to the police, and that he called social workers in for intervention.

The principal has been blamed by the families and surrounding community, for failing to report the three-week-old incident to the department, the police, medical professionals and for failing to ensure social workers started counselling the children immediately.

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Pretoria News

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