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Khaya Ngwenya City Press<\/p>\n
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There was chaos outside the Scottburgh Magistrate\u2019s Court yesterday when family and friends of a South Coast school principal charged with raping schoolgirls attacked the police investigating officer, an SABC cameraman and community members supporting the children. <\/p>\n
The group, armed with knobkieries and sticks, were there to support the 44-year-old principal who was making his bail application. The case was postponed until next Thursday. <\/p>\n
The man was arrested at his school last week after primary school girls approached police officers visiting their school on an outreach programme. They said the man had lured them to his office saying they were there to clean, or that he would give them extra lessons. <\/p>\n
Several hundred people were at court for the man\u2019s second appearance yesterday. These included children\u2019s rights activists, the ANC, the South African Democratic Teachers\u2019 Union, community members and the children\u2019s parents. <\/p>\n
The situation became tense inside the court when the principal\u2019s supporters and the opposing group began exchanging jibes. <\/p>\n
Outside, a face-off ensued and, when the investigating officer arrived, she was mobbed by the principal\u2019s supporters who beat her up. She managed to hold on to the docket throughout the attack. <\/p>\n
Despite the court being only metres from the police station, no police officers came to her assistance. Afterwards, she returned to the scene with three policemen to identify her attackers, who ran away with the officers in pursuit. <\/p>\n
Zamo Ngcobo, an SABC cameraman who filmed the attack, became the target of the group when a woman who later said she was the principal\u2019s daughter, threw water in his face. <\/p>\n
The group slapped Ngcobo, trying to take his camera until local ANC councillor, Ntokozo Maphumulo, intervened \u2013 using his body to shield the journalist from the group. <\/p>\n
Earlier the principal\u2019s daughter had also been slapped and punched by community members. <\/p>\n
When Maphumulo had tried to intervene, he was knocked to the ground by a man wielding a piece of wood. A number of terrified women ran from the fray crying for help. <\/p>\n
The incident was confirmed by police spokesman Thulani Zwane who said that a 20-year-old woman had been arrested for assaulting a police officer. <\/p>\n
Addressing people afterwards, Maphumulo criticised the handling of the incident by police. \u201cIf an investigating officer and journalist can be attacked, then how safe are we?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThese people are dangerous,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI call on the police to please protect us, especially the women who are here,\u201d the councillor added. <\/p>\n
The principal is facing four charges of rape and three charges of sexual assault. He is also charged with exposing himself. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Khaya Ngwenya City Press There was chaos outside the Scottburgh Magistrate\u2019s Court yesterday when family and friends of a South Coast school principal charged with raping schoolgirls attacked the police investigating officer, an SABC cameraman and community members supporting the children. The group, armed with knobkieries and sticks, were there to support the 44-year-old principal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-16695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}