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Mr Edward Mutenda tries to comfort his suffering son, Surprise Mulwanndwa Mutenda.

5-Year-old child sustains serious burns at school

 

The parents of a five-year-old Grade R pupil, Surprise Mulwanndwa Mutenda, are furious, following an incident where the pupil sustained critical burns during school hours.

Another pupil allegedly pushed Surprise into the fire where the school was burning refuse. He sustained severe burns on both hands, his chin,  the lower part of his stomach and his left foot.

Even though Surprise is resting at his home in Maelula village, not writing year-end exams, he says he is afraid of ever going back to school. “I don't want to die!” he wailed. “My body is burning – there is fire on my body.”

He kept crying throughout Limpopo Mirror's interview with him and his father on Sunday afternoon. Fresh pus still oozed from his open, fresh wounds.

The incident happened on Tuesday, a week ago.

Although the principal, Ms Grace Makakavhule, rushed Surprise to the clinic, the school has not paid the family a proper visit after the incident. The school is even not revealing the identity of the pupil or the parents of the pupil who pushed Surprise into the fire.

“We are angry with the school,” said Surprise's father, Mr Edward Mutenda. “When we ask the principal, she keeps sending us from pillar to post. Our child nearly died and the school lacks the decency to apologise to us. Why was the fire made during school hours and no one supervised it in the first place?”

Mutenda said that he saw no reason for the fire to be started, apart from “the stupid purpose of roasting my son alive”. “I have come to that conclusion because the school has not sent any representative to comfort us as Surprise's parents,” he fumed. “We only heard from other learners that another child pushed our child into the fire.”

He felt that the school should at least have arranged a meeting between the two families, so that they could appropriately ask forgiveness from each other for the misdemeanour committed by one child to another.

Ms Makakavhule declined to comment.

The Department of Education's provincial spokesperson, Mr Paena Galane, acknowledged receipt of the media inquiry and said that he had referred the matter to the relevant unit within the department. “I cannot comment further on this case at this stage,” he said. “Let's wait and see what the unit will have found out at the end of the day.”

Severe burns below Surprise Mulwanndwa Mutenda's navel.

Surprise Mulwanndwa Mutenda's foot.

 

Date:21 November 2014

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

Read: 1962

 

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