A confrontation that started at school ended in tragedy on the streets of Chatsworth when a schoolboy was killed.
|||Durban - A confrontation that started at school ended in tragedy on the streets of Chatsworth on Sunday when a schoolboy was killed and his elder brother wounded.
Sixteen-year-old Dareshan Moodley was stabbed to death and his 18-year-old brother, matric pupil Revarsheen, is in RK Khan Hospital, Chatsworth, recovering from his injuries. He is unaware that his brother has lost his life.
Revarsheen, who is on a drip and in a stable condition, was concussed and has marks on his ribs and face from where he was kicked, his father, Jayce, said on Sunday night.
“He keeps asking for Dareshan but I’ve told him that he is fine and at home, but I am going to have to tell him the truth when he gets stronger,” the senior Moodley said.
A stream of friends converged on their home in Road 749, Montford, Chatsworth, to comfort the family, including the teenagers’ traumatised grandmother, Mogie, who doted on Dareshan.
The Daily News was unable to establish the progress of the investigation on Sunday night, but a source said later that five alleged attackers had been arrested and one was still on the run.
The boys’ father said the tragedy had its roots in a recent fight at the nearby Welbedene Secondary School - which both his sons attended - when another pupil, aged 17 or 18, struck Dareshan for speaking to his sister.
When his son fought back, the teenager pulled a knife from his backpack and stabbed him. He said he had reported that incident to the school.
The two brothers spent Saturday night at the popular Chatsworth Fair and were on their way home with several friends after midnight when they were set upon by what their father said was a “gang” of youths, including the teenager who had knifed Dareshan at school.
After the attack, his sons’ frantic friends flagged down a passing motorist and raced to the Moodley home to call their father.
“I was asleep: it was about 1am. I put on some long pants and went to the scene. Dareshan was lying on his back on the ground and I could not see his injuries. He was already dead,” his father said.
“I felt his heart and he was gone. I closed his eyes. Revarsheen was across the road, struggling to breathe and moaning.”
Now, in the wake of the tragedy, angry friends and neighbours who rallied around the family, said they wanted to know why the teenage attacker, who had been in the gang at the weekend, had a knife at school.
Visvin Reddy, the chairman of Chatsworth ANC, said he would be contacting the MEC for Education, Senzo Mchunu, to call for regular spot checks for knives in schools.
“We don’t want our schools to become battlegrounds. This is a tragedy and the Chatsworth community is extremely shocked. It was totally uncalled for and barbaric,” he said.
Last week, in what was thought to be gang-related violence at a high school in Hopewell in Pietermaritzburg,
Siyanda Sithole, 16, was stabbed in the left shoulder and Zwelihle Mkhize, 17, three times in the back.
It was the third such stabbing at the Umlulama Secondary School this year.
Department of Education spokesman, Muzi Mahlambi, said last week that about three pupils had died so far this year as a result of pupil-on-pupil violence, while last year, 22 were killed by other pupils in KwaZulu-Natal.
Daily News