Chanté Schatz, News24
While a motorist faces charges of reckless and negligent driving after ploughing his BMW through a crowd of pupils outside a Johannesburg school, he has opened up a case of his own – that of malicious damage to property.
According to the police, the motorist's vehicle sustained "a lot of damage" after pupils jumped on his bonnet.
"According to our investigations, the pupils who were gathered outside as shown in the video, were throwing water bombs, eggs and stones at one another. Some students jumped on the motorist's bonnet, causing a lot of damage to his vehicle," police spokesperson Captain Balan Muthan said.
He added that the motorist, who had a 10-year-old child with him at the time, then reversed into a vehicle behind him and sped off, ploughing through the pupils gathered in the street.
SEE: Motorist ploughs BMW through group of pupils outside Joburg school
Muthan said a case of reckless and negligent driving was opened by the school at the Honeydew police station on Wednesday morning.
By then, the motorist had already opened up the malicious damage to property case.
The incident, outside Allen Glen High School in Weltevreden, on the West Rand of Johannesburg, was captured on video and posted on social media on Tuesday.
Chairman of the school governing body Warren McKrill said no injuries were reported.
McKrill refuted suggestions the school children were celebrating "40 days" (40 days until their final exams) saying: " [There were] not only matric pupils outside the school. There were various grades of students who were outside at the time it happened and there are 32 days left till final exams, not 40."
Police could not confirm whether the students' behaviour was the result of so-called celebrations, as rumoured on social media.