The principal of Manyano primary school will face charges of misconduct.
The Department of Education in the Mpumalanga province said when assaulting 14-year-old Sphamandla Choma, which resulted in him being paralysed, the principal of the Middelburg school was contravening section 10 of South African Schools Act and section 17 of the Employment Educators Act.
Addressing journalists at the Riverside government complex, MEC Reginah Mhaule said the Schools Act provided that the contravention of the act, administering corporal punishment at a school, “that a person guilty of such an offence was on conviction liable to sentence which could be imposed”.
“The Department wishes to re- iterate this position and to urge teachers to comply in every instance,” Mhaule told journalists.
She said the disciplinary hearing will be instituted against the principal, who has been on suspension since January 2017 when the SABC first reported the issue, where he will face charges of misconduct.
“I can indicate that the report recommended that disciplinary action be preferred against the principal for contravening section 10 of the South African Schools Act and section 17(1) of the Employment of Educators Act no 76 of 1998.
“To this end, I wish to state that due process will commence so that a platform is created for the principal to answer. This means that the principal will be charged with misconduct,” Mhaule said.
Meanwhile, the family of Choma, who has since been transferred from the eMalahleni general hospital to Middelburg hospital, is suing the Mpumalanga education MEC for R25 million following the incident.
(edited by MLM)
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