Nightmare for parents after daughter's school rape hell

Horror in Grade R | Teacher insisted girl was 'fine' despite assault by boys

On March 28, nine-year-old Lihle Hlanjwa was buried in Delft on the Cape Flats. She died nearly two months after being raped and set alight.

Nearby, a five-year-old girl watched the funeral on television in raw horror. She, too, had been raped, three weeks previously, allegedly by three Grade 2 boys at her school.

They vowed she would die if she told a soul. So when would she be buried, she wanted to know from her broken parents.

"She was crying. She wanted to know how she survived this," said her father this week.

Drowning in grief, he has become obsessed with his daughter's safety, staying home with her all day.

It has been a month of hell for the family, who had sent their little girl to a school a 30-minute drive away in Mitchells Plain because they feared she might be clawed away by rapists in their own crime-ridden area.

As soon as the couple learnt of the rape, they removed their daughter from the school. They are struggling to find another close to Sea Point, where the mother is a domestic worker. "It will be safer because her mother will not be far. But she is very frustrated at home. Grade R is so important," her father said.

The boys appeared at a disciplinary hearing recently. The outcome was inconclusive because the victim "could not" give evidence and the boys denied the allegations.

But the family claim they were never told about a disciplinary hearing. The school also failed to inform the girl's parents she had been raped.

Instead, the father says, the school phoned him two days after the rape and asked cryptically whether he could come to a meeting about a problem with school transport.

The father said the rape occurred on March 4 near the principal's office while the girl was waiting after school to be fetched. A Grade 1 pupil apparently witnessed the assault and reported it to teachers the next day. A doctor confirmed that the child had been raped.

The father said he had been unable to attend the "transport meeting". A week later, he and his wife went to the school and inquired about their daughter's academic progress because she could not sleep, would not wear underwear and was "shaky".

"The teacher said she was doing fine even though she had been raped," the father said.

What followed were many tears, a visit to the police, an examination and counselling.

"They couldn't call us, yet my child was interrogated in front of the boys' parents without my being present," said the father.

He said when he and his wife met the boys' parents last month, they were allegedly offered money "to help with taxi fare", which they refused.

As he recounted this he froze - his daughter was no longer in the room. He jumped up and searched frantically, visibly relieved as she emerged from the bathroom. He has given up his own business ventures to care for her.

Delft's population is 152030 - 52% coloured and 46% black. The unemployment rate is over 41%.

The houses are neat and the streets are clean, but the girl's parents are desperate for a safer neighbourhood.

Dr Amelia Kleijn, researcher and social worker, said the girl needed intervention from experienced professionals. The department provided a counsellor who referred the family to a psychologist.

"The child's long-term prognosis is very good, providing she receives regular professional assistance and continued love and support from her parents," said Kleijn. "Professional counselling will help the parents to address their feelings appropriately and show them how best to help their child. The parents' response to their daughter's rape, and ongoing support, is critical."

The father conceded they needed help. "My wife says this thing is killing her ... and it is killing me."

davidsn@sundaytimes.co.za