Johannesburg - A Gauteng father who "mistakenly" shot his son outside an Ennerdale school is facing murder charges, police confirmed on Wednesday.
The incident reportedly happened on Tuesday night around 9 pm at the Fred Norman Secondary School, where the 14-year-old was attending his evening classes.
Soweto West cluster spokesperson, Captain Mpande Khoza, explained that after dropping his son off, the 50-year-old man decided to wait for him in his locked car and fell asleep.
"The boy came back and knocked on the passenger window of his father's vehicle.
"The father, who was asleep in the car with his firearm on him, got scared... and pulled out his firearm and shot towards the direction of the person who was knocking. He then realised that it was his son after he had fired the shot."
The boy passed away on his way to the hospital.
A conflicting report, however, claimed that an altercation was what led to the pupil being fatally shot.
Steve Mabona, a spokesperson for the Gauteng Education department, said some pupils had witnessed a scuffle between the father and the boy during the day on Tuesday.
“According to information at our disposal there are learners who witnessed some incident ( between father and son during the day) and went back to class to call educators,” he told The Star.
Mabona also revealed that Lesufi would deploy psychologists to the school.
“We're focusing on the entire school,” said Mabona.
Exams that were set to be written on Wednesday have been postponed and the pupils sent home.
“We felt the need to postpone the exams that were supposed to be written today,” Mabona said.
Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi has since visited Fred Norman Secondary School in Ennerdale on Wednesday, where he was accompanied by police.
A relative of the deceased teenager said family members were still at the mortuary and would speak to journalists at a later stage.
Mpande confirmed that a case of murder had been opened and that the father would appear in the Protea magistrate court facing charges of murder.