The Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Steve Letsike, has called for effective preventative measures against bullying at schools.
Letsike said that a viral video showing a schoolgirl at the Thuto Lesedi Secondary School in Vosloorus, being assaulted by fellow schoolboys in a bus is a stark reminder of the pervasive gender-based violence (GBV) within communities and schools. She was reacting to a widely circulated video on social media platforms, depicting a girl being humiliated and physically assaulted by boys from her school.
The assault continued even after she had disembarked. Speaking on YOU FM Newshour, Letsike described the incident as “appalling” questioning the role of the bus driver who failed to intervene and help the victim.
“Why do we have by-standers, why don’t we have supervisors who can stand against this unacceptable behaviour? You can clearly see that girl continuing to be violated even after she disembarked from the scholar transport, even the bus driver looked the other way, while she was followed home and continued to be violated.That is unacceptable behaviour, but it tells you in terms of the kind of bullying that occurs that has been normalised in schools, in communities, in homes,” said Letsike.
In addition, Letsike said that the suspension of the boys who were allegedly involved in the incident including the bus driver and the decision of the Gauteng Department of Education to temporarily remove the school principal to the district office is not punitive enough.
“It’s not enough to speak about suspension. These are little things that become huge because if at all we look at how do we prevent and enforce our anti-bullying laws, these are things that have been integrated in code of conduct, in ethics, in the way we behave in school for both learners as well as teachers, and support staff. So, it’s not enough that we are talking about how we are going to deal with suspension, but how we need to recognise that bullying can occur in all levels so what are some of the preventative measures that we need to instill,” explained Letsike.
The Deputy Minister has called on the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to take swift and decisive action, including a full investigation into the incident, institute disciplinary measures against the perpetrators, and immediate enforcement of anti-bullying laws, as part of the code of conduct for all learners. Letsike urged the DBE to implement comprehensive prevention programmes to prevent both bullying and acts of GBV in schools.
“There are quite a number of strategies that one can think about on how we can combat bullying in schools.Some of these speaks about how we enforce the existing laws, our code of conduct that I have alluded to.But we must think about the dialogues, many of these young people are exposed to violence outside of their homes, in their communities, so how do we create an environment that is conducive that we can speak about violence.Who do we devote to sessions that speaks about bullying, but also emphasise on caring, respect and safety for everybody, but most importantly we must enforce consequence of hurting other and that must be tolerated,” said the deputy minister.
Letsike emphasised the need for greater vigilance from adults, including parents and teachers, in identifying warning signs and addressing problems promptly.
“When parents sent their kids to school, they are sending them to learn to co-exist, to engage, to integrate with society.We are not sending children to become bullies and parents also must play a role in terms of being part of a solution that help us in communication, help us to deal with anger controls, develop empathy and many of these things that speaks about peer relations, teacher-learner and all other stuff that interacts with this work.”
