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Durban – A KwaZulu-Natal teacher will face action from the province's department of education after a video of her beating school girls in class circulated online, a spokesperson said on Monday.
"We are very disturbed. In this day and age we are shocked that some educators are still using corporal punishment. This is abuse in the highest order," department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi told News24 on Monday.
Mahlambi said education MEC Mthandeni Dlungwane would visit Prince Tokotoko High School in Nongoma on Tuesday.
The footage, which was posted on Facebook, shows the teacher armed with what appears to be a stick or a pipe, summoning the teenage girls to the front of the class. She positions each one of them behind a chair before hitting each girl several times.
Mahlambi said the teenage girls were in Grade 12.
"We are taking this matter very seriously because this is not something small. Corporal punishment is not allowed. It is outlawed so what she did to the [pupils] was a crime," said Mahlambi.
"Tomorrow [Tuesday] the MEC would meet with management, the educator in question, parents, the school governing body and affected learners to discuss a way forward.
"We are going to take an action that will be a lesson to other educators in the province who are still practising corporal punishment. They are tarnishing the fraternity and we want to deal with those rotten potatoes," he said.
