DURBAN - "How many more children must die before something is done?"
That was the anguished question from Thandazile Zulu, the mother of 19-year-old Sboniso Landela.
Landela, a learner at Vusumuzi High School in Isithebe, northern KwaZulu-Natal, was killed at the school on Tuesday.
Landela died after he was allegedly involved in a physical altercation with four other learners.
During the fight, he was allegedly struck on the head and was later found unconscious.
Sitting beside a candle at the family’s homestead in eMandeni as she mourned her son, an emotional Zulu said that, if it were up to her, the school would be shut down permanently.
“How many more children must die before something is done? How many more families must bury their children before action is taken at Vusumuzi?”
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Zulu said the school’s name, which in isiZulu loosely translates to “bring life back to the homestead” and symbolises revival and prosperity, no longer reflected the reality facing families.
“What homesteads is this school reviving if our children, whom we send there to get an education, are being killed?”
She said she received a call on Tuesday urging her to rush to the school because her son had been involved in an incident.
When she arrived, she saw an ambulance but did not immediately realise that her son was involved.
Zulu said she was escorted to the principal’s office, where she was informed of her son’s death before being taken to see his body, which had already been covered with a blanket.
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Three days after the incident, Zulu said she had still not received an official explanation of what had led to her son’s death.
She said she was also struggling to come to terms with the loss while facing the financial burden of burying her son.
“What hurts the most is that I don’t even know how I am going to bury my son because I am unemployed. I don’t know how I will go on without my son,” she said.
Zulu said she wanted justice for her son and answers from the school so that the family could begin to find closure.
Four learners, aged between 15 and 20, have been arrested in connection with the incident.