The province’s minister of education and culture was responsible for a disabled arm caused by a South Coast teacher’s assault of a grade one pupil, Judge Hillary Squires ruled in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Wednesday.

The judge said that the punishment must have been frightening for the girl as she tried to avoid some of the hits by sheltering in a desk.

The teacher, Sylvia Nyuswa, was convicted in the Umzumbe Magistrate’s Court of assault and sentenced to a fine of R1 500, or three months’ jail, plus three months conditionally suspended. She has since died.

The girl was punished because she wrote poorly. The judge said that she was "still catching up with her peers".

She was repeatedly struck with a stick on her left arm, head and body

The particulars of the claim were that the pupil, Noluthando Mary Jane Duma, was repeatedly struck with a stick on her left arm, head and body and struck with a wooden spatula on her left arm, head and body in full view of her peers.

As a result of the assault she suffered a compound fracture of the left elbow and had medical and hospital treatment for which her mother, Qhubekile Duma, was responsible.

She was admitted to King Edward VIII Hospital for a month and 11 days after the assault. The damages claimed were R1,059-million, but the actual amount to be paid must still be adjudicated upon.

The assault took place at the Lucas Memorial CP School, Msinsini, in March 1998.

The minister pleaded that an instruction to administer light corporal punishment was not issued by the minister, but by the governing body of the school. Alternatively there was a failure to administer medical treatment timeously.

The minister’s plea was that Nyuswa hit her on the palms about two or three times with a small stick and that punishment could not have caused the injuries or their consequences and in fact the injuries were sustained when she fell out of a guava tree shortly before the punishment.

This was denied by the child and other witnesses.

The judge said that there had been a closing of ranks after publicity about the incident in a South Coast newspaper.

South Coast attorneys Kent Robinson du Plessis and advocate Igna Stretch undertook Duma’s case on a contingency basis.

With acknowledgements to Bob Frean and Independent Online.