A video showing a man, believed to be the coach of Mamelodi Sundowns, Rulani Mokwena, assaulting a grade 11 student from Glenvista High School, has sparked outrage on social media. The incident took place last Wednesday, outside the school premises.
The school has lodged a formal complaint against Mokwena with the Gauteng department of education, and demanded that he be held accountable for his actions. The parents of the students also protested at the school on Monday, seeking answers from the principal, Dr Thabile Morgan.
Steve Mabona, the spokesperson for the department, confirmed that they were aware of the incident and that they had sent a psychosocial support team to assist the affected student.
According to the letter that the school sent to Sundowns, Mokwena was driving past the school around 3pm on Wednesday, when he heard a student shout that ‘Sundowns lost their match last week’. He then reversed his car, got out, and confronted the student with violence.
https://twitter.com/AdvoBarryRoux/status/1715062219908481112
He grabbed the student by his uniform and asked him who said that. The student pointed at a group of students, but Mokwena was not satisfied and threatened to whip him with something in his car. He also forced the student to apologise and warned him that he would slap him.
The school said that the incident had humiliated their student and exposed him to bullying on social media. They also said that their school’s reputation had been tarnished by the incident, which had been trending since last Friday.
They urged Sundowns to respond to their complaint as soon as possible.
Sundowns did not comment on the matter by the time of writing this article. They had left for Mpumalanga on Tuesday to play against TS Galaxy in the Black Label Knockout competition on Wednesday night.