Limpopo MEC urges community involvement after another school violence incident goes viral

The Limpopo MEC for Social Development, Nkakareng Rakgoale, has condemned yet another incident of violence and bullying which is circulating on social media. 

According to her department's spokesperson, Witness Tiva, two pupils at Motlalaohle Secondary School in Botlokwa, north of Polokwane, who are in their school uniform are seen fighting while other learners are cheering on them in a video that has been shared on social media. 

This incident follows another incident of bullying which occurred in Sibasa where two pupils of Mbilwi Secondary School were also involved in an altercation and one of them, Lufuno Mavhunga later committed suicide. 

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Rakgoale has called on children who experience physical, verbal, social, and cyberbullying to immediately report such to their parents and to their teachers.

"Incidents of bullying will not come to an end until parents, civil society, and government join hands and teach children and society at large about the dangers and consequences of this social ill," she said. 

"In this recent incident which occurred in Botlokwa, we immediately dispatched a team of social workers to intervene and also see to it that they provide psychosocial support to affected children who have obviously had a traumatic experience after the fight. We really do not want to see a repeat of what transpired at Mbilwi Secondary School" said Rakgoale.

She also warned against sharing videos of such incidents. 

"No person shall publish in any manner whatever information which reveals or may reveal the identity of the accused under the age of 18 years or of a witness at criminal proceedings who is under the age of 18 years,” she said. 

The Department of Social Development social workers are continuing to provide psychosocial support to the Mavhunga family and to the affected Mbilwi Secondary School pupils.