Private school ordered to close because of corporal punishment

A private school in Mpumalanga has been ordered to close its doors because it conducts corporal punishment, according to a report.

City Press reported on Sunday, that the province's department of education said it would withdraw the registration of Cefups Academy, near Mbombela, because its investigation had found that staff at the school practise corporal punishment.

The department on Thursday told the R60,000-per-year school it must close from January 1, 2015.

Jasper Zwane, spokesman for the department, said Cefups' headmaster Simon Mkhatshwa would be able to appeal the decision.

A pupil, Paballo Seane, 19, died in hospital in August after allegedly being sjambokked at the school.

No one has been charged with Seane's death yet, but a police inquest was being conducted, the newspaper reported.

The school claims Seane killed herself by drinking Savlon.

However, one of her friends told the newspaper Seane was sjambokked on two consecutive days for not performing well in tests.

"All the matric students, except one boy who passed, were given five lashes for not doing well in maths. On the second day, they received their English marks and Paballo had scored less than 65 percent. She got more than 40 lashes for that," the pupil said.

A nurse at Nelspruit's Medi-Clinic told the newspaper that Seane had been beaten.