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The former principal of Russel Bungeni Secondary School, Mr Wilson Mahlaule.

Almost 30 years later, wild accusations still hurt

 

“Principal of Bungeni chased from school.”

The heading of this newspaper article looks as if it could be something that was published a week or a month ago. Of late, several reports appeared of parents and children staging protest marches, demanding that officials be removed. But this dates back to 14 October 1994.

So often people forget that real people are behind the names of the people driven away. The lives of those who become the target of this type of mob justice are destroyed and the emotional scars will take years to heal, if these ever heal completely. Very often, the instigators behind the mob justice later turn out to have had their own evil intentions and were merely hiding behind a faceless mob to do their dirty deeds.

Last week we interviewed the principal who was a victim of such a cowardly attack, almost 30 years ago.

On 4 October 1994, the principal of the Russel Bungeni School, Wilson Mahlaule, was chased away after a group of parents had conjured stories of witchcraft and applied pressure on the children to start a protest march.

For Mahlaule, the incident will forever linger in his mind. When it happened, he was no stranger to the Bungeni community, having worked there as teacher since 1981. He was a much-loved educator, with hundreds of children learning more about English and mathematics in his classroom.

After a short stint as principal of the Mahatlani Wayeni Secondary School, he returned to Russel Bungeni in 1993, where he was appointed principal. At the time, the school had about 1 300 pupils and 31 teachers.

“When I started working, I detected some resistance from a few of the teachers,” Mahlaule recalled during the interview. He ascribed this to professional jealousy, because he had been selected above some of the local teachers who had applied for the post. Mahlaule, however, had excellent credentials and a very good track record of managing schools.

The dissent was subtly brewing and Mahlaule even reported it to the Department of Education (DoE), asking that someone from outside intervene and try to resolve the problems.

When a senior teacher at the school died, the tension started mounting. “The death of the teacher was a sad affair. He was in and out of hospital for some time. The doctors later said it was a brain tumour,” said Mahlaule.

The death of the teacher, however, sparked the turmoil. The group of dissenters spread a rumour that Mahlaule was responsible for the death, having allegedly “bewitched” him. Children walked around school carrying a chalk board on which a message was written blaming the principal for the death. “I could not even attend the funeral of my colleague,” said Mahlaule.

Mahlaule feared for his life and had no other option than to report for work every morning at the circuit office of the DoE. He could not return to the school whilst all this was happening and had to wait patiently. The DoE could not do much either (or did not want to do much) to resolve the issue, so a temporary stalemate arose.

“Things only changed when a new district manager, Mr MT Khosa, was appointed,” said Mahlaule. In May 1999, with the assistance of the new district manager, the issue was quickly resolved, and within a week, Mahlaule could return to his post. More than four-and-a-half frustrating years had, however, passed during which he could not work.

“Those were very difficult circumstances,” recalled Mahlaule. “A cloud of suspicion hangs around you and your family. Those who were involved knew the allegations were false, but others were unsure,” he said.

He explained that witchcraft allegations are an exceptionally mean strategy. Unlike allegations of fraud or theft, you cannot prove your innocence. You fight against faceless enemies who uses superstition to try and influence people. The insinuations are made, and the stigma remains.

Mahlaule explained that his children, who were placed at another high school at the time, were being mocked. The matter also affected his own health, and he still suffers from depression. “In the years afterwards, many of my former colleagues and other community members came to me to apologise. It helped, but they were too afraid or ashamed to come out in the open and tell the truth,” said Mahlaule.

Mahlaule served as principal at Russel Bungeni until 2003, when he took early retirement because of ill health. During his time at the school, Russel Bungeni Secondary did extremely well, constantly ending among the top three schools in the region as far as academic results were concerned.

After retiring, he continued studying. He completed a diploma in management but later went on to study law. He even opened a small consulting practice in Louis Trichardt, where he assisted others, often pro bono, on legal and management matters.

His advice to people is to be very careful when they make accusations. “Don’t tarnish a person’s name. Be very careful and remember that it doesn’t only affect that person, it spills over to the other family members,” he said. He also thanked those who came forward to apologise, although this was much later.

 

News - Date: 05 March 2023

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Anton van Zyl

Anton van Zyl has been with the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror since 1990. He graduated from the Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg) and obtained a BA Communications degree. He is a founder member of the Association of Independent Publishers.

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