Former Windhoek Gymnasium boy relives ‘assaults’

THE hid in the toilet because he was afraid of being beaten again.

This was the testimony of a 17-year-old boy when he told Magistrate Helvi Shilemba yesterday of the impact of five alleged assaults by four Windhoek Gymnasium teachers on him.According to him, the beating on his buttocks came after he forgot his physical education clothes at home. ‘We [he and four other boys] went to hide in the bathroom. I was afraid to be beaten again.’He said they were caught and beaten by George Frederick Maartens, the then physical education teacher. Stephanus van Zyl, the school principal, gave them the option of going to his office – ‘where we would in any case be beaten’ – or go to Maartens ‘to be sorted out’, the boy said.Earlier yesterday afternoon, the boy also relived the other four beatings.During the first one, he said, Estelle Oberholzer, the physics teacher, hit him six times on his hands after he scored four out of ten for a test. He testified that the beatings hurt and left him confused. ‘I couldn’t understand it. I was angry. I was particularly angry because I got beaten because of my performance.’According to the boy, who was 14 at the time, his parents told the school to stop the beatings.The second time, he was called into the school’s corridor where Etienne Odendaal, the biology teacher, hit him on the buttocks because a test had not been signed by his parents. Apart from again feeling angry, this incident also left him ashamed, the boy said.Again his parents instructed the school to stop with the beatings, he said.However, this was not the end. After scoring 80 per cent for a physics test, Oberholzer again did not spare the rod and hit him twice. ‘For me it was incomprehensible. How can you get beaten for 80 per cent? I couldn’t understand it.’During the fourth incident, Van Zyl beat him for writing an English essay on a loose sheet of paper instead of in a notebook.The boy said the teachers hit him with ‘sticks of wood’, but he could not remember how big they were.The proceedings were postponed after the boy indicated through a German interpreter that he needed a break.At the same time, Raymond Heathcote, representing the teachers, also asked for an adjournment to enable Odendaal to attend a rugby match between a team he coaches and a visiting team from South Africa.Heathcote is assisted by Beatrix van der Merwe on instruction of Ben van der Merwe.Public Prosecutor Erich Naikaku represents the State.Magistrate Shilemba yesterday granted an application by the State for the boy to testify behind closed doors. She allowed his parents and the media to be present. Shilemba also ordered that the boy’s identity be protected.He was dressed in the school uniform of a German private school yesterday. His parents moved him there after the hidings at Windhoek Gymnasium.The trial is expected to continue this morning.