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Thursday 19 February 2015

SCHOOL BEATINGS OUT OF CONTROL

In the latest in a long line of cases of physical abuse of children at schools in Swaziland, a headteacher reportedly gave a boy 15 strokes of the cane after he was caught not wearing his necktie correctly. 

The Times of Swaziland reported the headteacher Mayiwane High School Anderson Mkhonta ‘admitted unleashing 15 strokes to a Form 1 pupil’.

The newspaper reported, ‘Mkhonta says he gave the strokes in intervals, as permitted by the law governing the administration of corporal punishment.’

The Times said the headteacher accused the boy of three offences: not tucking in his school shirt, not properly wearing his necktie and for being seen outside class during lessons.

The newspaper reported Mkhonta told the pupil that he would treat each of the offences separately, stating that a certain number of strokes would be given for each of the three offences and then he administered 15 strokes on the pupil’s buttocks. 

The abuse of children in schools has a long history in Swaziland. The headteacher at Salesian Catholic High School, Swaziland forces boys to lower their trousers so he can beat them on their bare buttocks.
Outraged parents reported head teacher Petross Horton to the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA). Parents described the bare-bottomed beatings as, ‘indecent harassment and brutality’.

Although corporal punishment of children is legal in Swaziland, there are rules about how it can be administered, which do not include floggings on the bare flesh.
Teachers across Swaziland regularly ignore the regulations and abuse schoolchildren.
In 2012, Save the Children Swaziland condemned teachers at Lusoti Primary for beating all the children at the school after one pupil made a noise in assembly.
In October 2011, the same group told the United Nations Human Rights Periodic Review held in Geneva that corporal punishment in Swazi schools was out of control. It highlighted Mhlatane High School in northern Swaziland where it said pupils were ‘tortured’ in the name of punishment. It said, ‘Teachers can administer as many strokes [of the cane] as they desire, much against the limit stipulated in the regulations from the Ministry of Education.’
In a separate case, girls at Mpofu High School were flogged by teachers on their bare flesh and if they resisted they were chained down so the beating could continue. The girls reported they received up to 40 strokes at a time.
In another case, a 10-year-old girl at kaLanga Nazarene Primary school was blinded for life in her left eye after a splinter from a teacher’s stick flew and struck it during punishment. And she was not the child being punished. She was injured when her teacher was hitting another pupil, with a stick which broke.

Children at Emtfonjeni High School were whipped with up to 10 strokes of a stick, because their school fees have not been paid. A majority of the pupils at the school are orphaned and depend on government to pay for their fees. 


A pupil at Mafucula High school was thrashed so hard that he later collapsed unconscious and had to be rushed to a clinic. Six pupils were thrashed with 20 strokes of a ‘small log’ because they were singing in class. It was reported that the boy who became unconscious was not one of those misbehaving, but he was flogged nonetheless.

The principal at Elangeni High, even publicly flogs adults who date pupils at his school. The men are forced to attend in front of the entire school, lie down on a bench and receive a whipping. The girls are also flogged.
See also
SCHOOL FLOGS BOYS ON BARE BUTTOCKS
SWAZI SCHOOL ‘TORTURES’ STUDENTS

CHILDREN CHAINED AND FLOGGED BARE
PROBE VICIOUS SCHOOL BEATINGS

SCHOOL FLOGGINGS OUT OF CONTROL
 
SCHOOL HEAD PUBLICLY FLOGS ADULTS

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