Boy found locked in classroom after mother spends weekend searching

The mother of five-year-old Masonwabe Mapolisa, who was locked in a classroom at JA Ncaca Primary School in Lingelihle, in Cradock in the Eastern Cape, spent the whole weekend frantically searching for him.  

Mapolisa was allegedly discovered naked with paint over his head in one of the classrooms.

Disedo Somatamba, from Michausdal, spoke about the trauma she went through at the weekend while searching for her boy.  

When her child, who usually arrives back home at 12.30pm, did not walk into the house on Friday, she asked her daughter who is a pupil at the same school if she could help find him. Her daughter could not find the child after looking for him around the school and on the bus which ferries them to school.  

On the same Friday, the mother asked one of the teachers from the school who stays in her area if he could help, but he also indicated that he didn’t find the child.

“I then went to another location and asked if they had seen him, but they hadn’t. I went all over, and I think it was 10pm and my husband and I hired a car which took us to the police station to report a missing person,” she said.  

Somatamba said on Saturday morning, a detective from Cradock police station assigned to her case, visited their home. The detective asked about the attire the child was wearing.

After meeting with the detective, they spent Saturday morning searching for Masonwabe but couldn’t find him.

Somatamba said she called one of the teachers and asked her if she did not lock the child inside the school. “She [teacher] told me she was the last person who locked the doors and the gate of the school and there was no-one there at the time,” she said.  

However, the mother and detective convinced the teacher to go and look for the child at the school.  The teacher went to the school to check, but came back and insisted there was no-one there.

“I think she went and checked, but she didn’t open the doors, she just checked through the windows and insisted there was no-one,” she said.

On Sunday morning the mother and detective continued their search. Without any success, they decided that on Monday they should go to school themselves.

“The detective said to me maybe that person didn’t report the child as it is very cold, and would bring the boy to the school on Monday,” she said.  

At the school, one of the teachers arrived at assembly running and screaming that the boy had been found in one of the classrooms.  

Somatamba said before the boy was found, the mother and detective asked the deputy principal if they could view the CCTV footage but were allegedly told the cameras were not working.  

“While one teacher was praying for us, the other came running and screaming that they found the boy.”  

She said she was overcome with emotion and collapsed before later recovering.

The mother said one of the teachers took the child straight to the Cradock Provincial Hospital. She said when she later saw him at the hospital, the sight of her child was terrifying. 

“The legs of the boy were very dark. They found the boy naked in class and there was paint all over his head. They didn’t tell me why he was naked,” said the mother. 

She said she could not find her child’s jacket and shoes which he was wearing when he left home on Friday.  

Masonwabe was subsequently airlifted to Dora Nginza Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay for treatment. Somatamba said he was recovering well.

Eastern Cape education department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima was asked about the investigation the department has launched into the matter.  

“We are still gathering information and will issue a statement in due course. Our team is at the school with the district investigating team,” he said.  

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