PRINCIPAL IN COURT FOR PUBLIC VIOLENCE

There is something very wrong with this picture, don't you think? Surely the Principal should be teaching children right from wrong? Surely they should be a role model - what on earth is this Principal trying to teach. That violence is good, that damaging people's goods is good, that being arrested and going to court is good!

Well perhaps in this case it is good - in court and going to jail, is exactly where she should be!

Principal in court for public violence
October 24 2006 at 11:16AM

The principal of the Ithutheng Trust school in Kliptown, Soweto, appeared briefly in the Protea Magistrate's Court on charges of public violence and malicious damage to property, police said on Tuesday. Jackie Maarohanye handed herself over to police on Monday and shortly after appeared in court where she was released from custody and her case postponed to November 8.

Police issued a warrant for Maarohanye's arrest on October 10 after pupils from her school took to the streets, burning tyres and blocking roads. They were protesting against the police's failure to solve the death of a fellow pupil in a fire at the trust school. A 19-year-old pupil died in the fire and two others - also young men - escaped the blaze.


Maarohanye allegedly insisted that a hut on the premises of the trust was petrol-bombed. The two survivors told the police that on the night in question, they went to bed with a burning brazier in the hut. Forensic reports suggested no proof of a petrol bomb. Police spokeswoman Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said Maarohanye was "instrumental" in the protest by the pupils and that is why she was arrested. "These violent protests left five people injured and property damaged. A resident's house was also broken into and several items stolen and burned," Martins-Engelbrecht said. - Sapa