By Emily Setona
QWAQWA — After two years working with children in the United States, 27-year old Boniswa Nhlapo says South Africa must confront violence and bullying in schools before it escalates into tragedy.
Nhlapo, now an educational assistant at a school in Bethlehem, was speaking to The Guard during a Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) awareness walk to Wetsi’s Cave on 25 September, led by Free State Education MEC Dr Mamiki Julia Maboya.
Having worked as an au pair for two families in Michigan, Indiana and Arizona, Nhlapo said she saw first-hand how access to firearms makes school violence deadlier in America.
“The kids carry guns, not only knives. They carry guns,” she said.
“They experience bullying to a point where they feel like they have to kill this person in order to get peace,” she said.
Nhlapo said the experience abroad has sharpened her view of the crisis at home.Since returning, she says she has faced bullying and neglect herself as school support staff.
“As an assistant myself, working in schools, I have faced challenges regarding bullying and also just the neglect of working as personnel in these schools,” she said.
But she said help is available.
“There’s always support. There’s always some form of platform you can talk to. Not only the teachers, but also the Department of Education. They are there for us. They are always listening,” she said.
“It’s not only students who are being bullied, but teachers as well.”
Walking alongside her was her friend, 24-year-old law student Thabiso Ramaponi, who took time off from his studies to join the walk.
“As a young man in South Africa, I am against GBV and Femicide, hence I took my time from my studies to come support this movement and help spread awareness and be the change,” he said.
His message to other young men was direct:
“Real men don’t abuse women, real men don’t terrorize but love and respect women,” Ramaponi said.
For Nhlapo, the walk was more than awareness — it was a call for communities to build safer schools for both learners and those who teach them.
