News of the horror hanging has left the local community in shock and has people questioning and fearing for the safety of their children at school.

The boy is believed to have hanged himself with a tunic belt at about 1,20pm on Friday on the school premises. He was found hanging from the cross bar of a swing. The school falls under the Lubombo Circuit in Nkomazi Local Municipality district.

Officials from the Mpumalanga Department of Education visited the school and the family of the deceased learner on Friday after they received the news of what has happened.

Counselling services

Today a team of psychologists will visit the school to give support and offer counselling services to all who witnessed and those affected by the incident.

We expect and trust teachers to keep our kids safe while there are in school, but if one child could end their life here it raises questions.

“One never imagined that something of this sort can happen within a school environment. We convey our sincere condolences to the family and to the school. The Department will be instituting an investigation to probe the circumstances that led to this sorry incident,” said the acting Education MEC Sasekane Manzini.

A parent at the school, Fikile Lubisi, said: “Indeed this is unfortunate and unexpected news because no parents deserve to have to hear that their child has died while they were at school. We expect and trust teachers to keep our kids safe while there are in school, but if one child could end their life here it raises questions. I still don’t understand where the teachers were when (the suicide) happened. We are pleading with police to do a proper investigating into the death of the child to see if anyone should be held accountable.”

The Department said it was also committed to supporting the child’s family through their bereavement. – Health-e News.

An edited version of this story was also published by IOL