Byline: Kelebogile Masemola

16 March 2022

SAPS Soshanguve members visited Phumzile primary school in Block H on Tuesday 15 March 2022, to address learners on different types of bullying.

About 150 learners from grade 5, 6 and 7 were in attendance.

Warrant officer Maleka was one of the police members who addressed the learners.

“Bullying is a harmful behaviour that a person does towards you, that behaviour affects you physically, mentally and emotionally.

“We have three types of bullying that you need to know so that you can report to your teacher when it happens to you, that is physical bullying, verbal bullying and cyberbullying,” Warrant Officer Maleka.

Learners were encouraged to stop bullying as it has now become a big problem in many schools because it affects the livelihood of those who are being bullied.

They were also encouraged to report bullies to class teachers before escalating the matter to parents at home.

“If another learner bullies you please report the matter to your teacher, your teacher will deal with the matter accordingly and they will be able to protect you,” she said.

The principal of Phumzile primary school, Mr Amos Dimande says they called the SAPS to come and address the learners about bullying because the issue has now become a huge problem in their school.

“We have tried by all means to eradicate bullying in our school but unfortunately our learners need an outside person for intervention, so that’s why we saw it was necessary to involve our school cop Nancy Makuwa, and she saw it necessary to invite her colleagues from the SAPS to come and talk to our learners.

“We teach our learners about bullying in their life skills class but we feel it’s not enough because some learners don’t really understand what bullying means,” principal Dimande said.

Phumzile primary school has involved their counsellors who have been trained and are qualified counsellors for intervention.

Mrs Nomsa Dlamini, DH foundation phase teacher and counsellor says she has dealt with this matter many times and that it has impacted their school negatively.

“The problem is not the learners, the problem is the background at home because even if you invite the parent to the school to discuss what their child is doing to other kids, the parent is very protective of their child and justify the issue as the child being naughty and hyper.

“The issue of bullying could be dealt with much easier if the parents would work with us and not against us because at the end of the day we want our kids to learn in a healthy and happy environment,” Mrs Dlamini said.