Home South African Atteridgeville school pupils claim lives in danger after hallucinating, fainting, seeing ’snake’

Atteridgeville school pupils claim lives in danger after hallucinating, fainting, seeing ’snake’

769

Some parents rushed to the school to fetch their children, who were said to be collapsing and trying to dig out muti from the school premises.

Classes were interrupted at Phelindaba Secondary School in Atteridgeville, where pupils started fainting and hallucinating. Picture: Oupa Mokoena/African News Agency (ANA)

PRETORIA – Atteridgeville parents fear for the safety of their children who attend Phelindaba High School, after they hallucinated and fainted on the school premises on Thursday and Friday last week.

Some parents rushed to the school to fetch their children, who were said to be seeing things like a snake, collapsing and trying to dig out muti from the school premises and claiming that their lives were in danger.

The Pretoria News arrived at the school on Friday to find one learner trying to get up while others were trying to help him.

Pupils said at least 20 of them had started hallucinating at the school on Thursday and again on Friday, uttering things like their lives were in danger and that there was tension in the school.

Community members said they were in a state of shock and did not know how to explain what was happening. They said they called the Atteridgeville police to come and monitor the situation but they knew it was not a matter the police would have answers to.

Chairperson of Lotus Garden, Atteridgeville and Saulsville Civic Association, Tshepo Mahlangu, said parents were now worried because what happened could not be understood, prompting parents to fetch their children.

“We will have an urgent meeting with the school executive and the parents because this is terrifying. It happened on Thursday and became worse by Friday. Now parents are wondering what will happen on Monday.

“We engaged the police and the pupils to try to make sense of what was happening. The pupils said they were seeing a snake. It was just a devastating situation. It was like there were too many pupils experiencing a trance at the same time,” said Mahlangu.

Informal traders who sell food outside the school said they also could not explain what was happening and were surprised to see pupils collapsing and experiencing what looked like a trance.

Kamogelo Vavi said: “At this point only the pupils can best explain what they are experiencing because we really do not understand. It must be some spiritual thing because pupils who had adorned their clothes to indicate they have a calling were the ones assisting others. Hopefully they all get well and learning resumes smoothly.”

Traditional healer Papani Mosehla said by the explanation of what happened, the learners were not high on drugs, meaning a spiritually-gifted person must be sought to assess the environment, to determine what could be making them act in that fashion.

“We cannot undermine our African roots and simply find Western terminology to explain what is happening. The pupils might not be hallucinating but seeing real and evil things that the ordinary person cannot see,” said Mosehla.

The Department of Education is expected to make an official comment on this matter.

Pretoria News

Previous articlePolice search for driver of VW Polo who abandoned toddler on busy Midrand street and sped off
Next articleFinance Minister to act as petrol prices in the country set to hit record highs