It’s every parent’s nightmare: a child is raped at school while she is supposed to be safe at its aftercare centre.
|||It’s every parent’s nightmare: a child is raped at school while she is supposed to be safe at its aftercare centre.
The nightmare became a reality for a Cape Town father in March 2005, when his then eight-year-old daughter was raped on the grounds of a northern suburbs primary school.
The school’s janitor, Bronwill Daniels, was convicted of the rape in 2008 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The issue has now become the centre of a civil application in the Western Cape High Court.
The father, who cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the girl, now 12, wants to sue Education MEC Donald Grant and his head of department for more than R2 million.
However, he has to overcome a legal hurdle: a notice his lawyers sent to the department to inform it of his intention to sue – a prerequisite for anyone who wants to sue an organ of state – was served on the department more than four years after the rape took place.
The father says that he has legitimate reasons for the delay, including the fact that he is a layman with no knowledge of the law. He has now applied to the High Court to condone the late filing of the notice.
In papers filed in the condonation application, the father alleges that Grant and the HoD are vicariously liable for the psychological effects of the rape on his daughter.
In an affidavit he explained the background the case.
The girl stayed at aftercare, in the school grounds, while she waited for her older sister to finish classes.
On the evening of the rape his wife bathed their daughter and discovered she had genital injuries. A doctor then examined her and found that she had been raped by an adult.
Daniels was later tried for rape in the Parow Regional Court in November 2006. During the trial, the doctor testified that he believed the girl had been raped more than once.
The child testified that she had been supposed to be at the aftercare centre but that she played at the sandpit instead. She said Daniels had taken her from the sandpit to a tree where he raped her.
The court found that she had no reason to falsely implicate Daniels and that there was no evidence before the court that she was attempting to protect anyone.
Daniels was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The father said the teachers and supervisors at aftercare were appointed by the school’s governing body but were answerable to the principal.
“In particular, the teachers and supervisors who were on duty at the aftercare centre had to ensure that the children, who were supposed to attend the aftercare centre, were in fact in the classes provided for by the school at the aftercare centre, and ensure that they were not left alone in the school grounds.”
His daughter had been severely traumatised by the rape and has had treatment.
However, she would have to undergo psychological therapy, which the family could not afford.
Turning to the late service of the notice, the father said that the family moved to another province after Daniels was convicted and he then consulted an attorney and advocate about the incident.
It was only then that he was informed that he had to serve a notice on the department informing it of his intention to sue, the father said.
According to the father’s attorney, Lunen Meyer, the application had been set down on the High Court roll for Tuesday and that he would prepare the summons.
fatima.schroeder@inl.co.za
Weekend Argus