By Kevin Ritchie
A teacher and 12 matric pupils have been suspended from Parktown Boys' High School hostel until the end of the first term.
The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) confirmed on Friday that Bryan Hillock, the school's Afrikaans teacher and the hostel's Form 1 (Grade 8) mentor, had been suspended from all hostel activities.
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The school has also stripped the hostel head boy of his office.
The department's communications director, Nanagolo Leopeng, said it condemned what had happened at the prestigious Johannesburg school.
"The department instituted an investigation immediately after receiving information about these allegations," Leopeng said.
Initiation subjected pupils to violence and humiliation, undermining their dignity, as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and the South African Schools Act, she said.
Any person found breaking the prohibition on initiation would be guilty of an offence and disciplined.
Hillock, a former Parktown pupil himself and a teacher at the school since 2005, left Druce House on Thursday night with the 12 matrics.
None have been suspended from the school itself.
The suspensions follow exposure in The Star on Tuesday of a brutal midnight initiation practice on February 2 by the 12 matrics and the hostel head boy on Grade 11 boys.
One of the boys' mothers, Pene Kimber, blew the whistle, which sparked the furore.
In her son's affidavit to Midrand police on Thursday, he told how all the Grade 11 pupils were taken from their beds that night, marched to the rugby field, stripped naked and forced to rub Deep Heat onto their genitals before lining up against a wall and being forced to run a gauntlet of matric boys who beat them with cricket bats, hockey sticks and golf clubs.
The next evening, Hillock allegedly addressed the Grade 11s.
He said, according to Kimber's son: "He was sorry he had not been present at the initiation but he did not want to see us cry."
After the school was informed by one of the parents of what had happened, Hillock approached the pupils.
He was very angry, said Kimber's son. Hillock allegedly made the boys run 15 laps round the rugby field "even if it took until 6pm".
The next day a boy joked in class about the initiation in front of Hillock. As they returned to the hostel, Hillock approached the boy, taking off his jacket and tie in the process.
"You are not too small to fight me," Kimber's son claimed he said.
Hillock then warned the boy about speaking out about what had happened.
On Friday, both the school and the GDE confirmed Hillock had been internally disciplined before for violence against a boy three years before.
He had hit a boy with a hockey stick on the hockey field. Hillock was then instructed to attend an anger management course. There was also an incident last year.
Headmaster Tom Clarke said: "He did attend a disciplinary hearing at which it was decided that as he was subjected to strong provocation, he be given a letter of warning."
On Friday Druce Hall committee chairperson, Marc McLean, said the decision to suspend Hillock had been taken after the Disciplinary Committee learnt that while no teacher had been present at the February 2 initiation, Hillock had admitted he learnt of it after the fact, and had chosen to keep quiet about it instead of reporting it to the school's management.
"Mr Hillock is an incredible individual and a dedicated teacher," McLean said. "He is one of the top housemasters at the school."
Hillock will return to the hostel with the suspended matrics at the beginning of the second term.
"The school is sombre," McLean said. "The heart has been ripped out by all this. This is a very proud school, excelling academically last year with 300 distinctions in matric and excelling on the sports fields.
"We are feeling the brunt, this is a beautiful school with a beautiful spirit that creates an incredible feeling of support and loyalty of the old boys. Their passion is unbelievable.
"Half the stands at home games are filled by them, they've raised all the money for a brand new sports centre."