Michael Ngubane is a director of @aQuelle and heads the school board. I personally witnessed many beatings where adults would pin the child to the floor… “To get abused is one thing. To get abused in the name of God is another” news24.com/news24/southaf…
So #KwaSizabantu will tell you Michael apologised to the ex-pupils and his apology was accepted. Bullshit. They’re referring to a meeting held with FIVE ex-pupils in 2000 as a result of me writing an article about the abuse I witnessed.
Even the authors of a report paid for by #KwaSizabantu themselves couldn’t hide their shock and called the beatings “vicious”. But he’s still a director of @aQuelle - anyone else anywhere else would have been stripped of his titles. Worse, he heads up the school board.
Make no mistake. Michael was not the only person who abused children. I have more than 70 personal written testimonies that name 32 adults who abused people in one way or another at #KwaSizabantu.
See if you can read this excerpt and not be moved.
A South Africa company fired a woman because she became pregnant when she wasn't married and therefore did not comply with its code of conduct that prohibits “amorous relationships between any two persons outside of marriage”. Guess who? @aQuelle of course law.cornell.edu/women-and-just…
To add insult to injury, @aQuelle appealed the court's decision to award her a year's salary. They lost the appeal. Guess how much her annual salary was back in 2008 when this happened? The amount this multi-million rand company didn't want to pay? A paltry R662 a month... #greed
@aQuelle Six years after being dismissed, she was finally awarded the full year's salary of R7943. She didn't get it. She died in a car accident two weeks before the appeals court ruled in her favour. This is just one of the many lives #KwaSizabantu and @aQuelle has destroyed.
Do you follow @onewm yet? They celebrate underreported stories that break down prejudice and connect cultures, and their annual awards recognise the best media coverage of the global south. “Stories shape our world. It matters how they’re told.” 1/
Last year, their Podcast of the Year was the one @News24 did with my friend Celimpilo and I: Exodus. It’s four riveting episodes, give it a listen… news24.com/news24/Video/S…
And this year, the marvellous Deon Wiggett and the team at @News24 are yet again on the shortlist. 3/