A 16-year-old boy faces a murder charge after a fellow pupil was stabbed to death at a Cape Town school, police said.
|||“I told him to squeeze my hand if he can hear me… he did a few times and then his hand went soft.”
This is how 65-year-old Veronica Williams described the final moments of her 16-year-old grandson, Raylinn Fortuin, who died after being stabbed at Beauvallon High in Valhalla Park on Tuesday.
The alleged perpetrator is a fellow pupil, who had not attended classes on Tuesday and apparently jumped the school fence just before the incident. According to the Western Cape Education Department, he was not wearing a uniform.
Williams said hat just before the incident, Raylinn had made a stop at home and got a glass of water at 10.30am.
“He told me he was sent by a teacher to buy a cooldrink and chips. I teased him about it and asked him if he was a shop boy now for the teachers, and he replied ‘Yes, ma’, and we laughed.
“About 10 minutes after he left, a teacher came running while I was busy doing my washing. He told me to come quickly to the school because something has happened to Raylinn,” she said.
When she arrived he was lying on the floor in the principal’s office with a wound on one side of his neck. “I didn’t expect him to die so quickly.”
Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel André Traut said two suspects had entered the school grounds at about 10.30am and attacked Raylinn.
“One of the suspects, also aged 16, was arrested shortly after the incident and is being detained on a charge of murder. The other suspect fled and is yet to be arrested.”
He said the possibility that the incident was gang related had not been ruled out.
When the Cape Argus arrived at Raylinn’s home, which is two minutes away from his school, his mother, Tasneen Tonta, sat on a couch in the living room comforted by Williams.
“I don’t know what happened. People are not telling me much; all I know is that my son is dead.”
She said she was fetching her high blood pressure medication when she received a phone call from the police about her son’s death.
“I am too shocked… I don’t know what to do. When I left this morning around 6am he was still sleeping. He had lots of friends… and wasn’t a troublemaker. I don’t know why someone would do this to him,” said Tonta, wiping away tears.
“The police said they are coming to tell me more about what happened. I am still waiting… I don’t know the whole story of how my son died.”
Williams said she was going to miss taking care of Raylinn and his “teasing ways”.
“I am going to miss waking him up in the morning and getting his bath ready for him. As far as I know, he wasn’t involved with gangs in the area. He was a very obedient child, you could send him to the shop a number of times and he wouldn’t complain,” she said.
Valhalla resident Vanessa Solomons, 30, who is a guardian of two teenagers who attend the same school, said the school was full of gangsters.
“The Rude Boys and the Outlaws (OTL’s) – and they are fighting about girls not drugs.
“Our children are forced to attend a gang-riddled school. We live in a poor community and we can’t afford to take them somewhere else.
“They are used to this kind of thing and learning under such circumstances… it doesn’t shock them any more.”
Raylinn’s father, David Fortuin, said he and his son “were like two brothers”.
“We would joke around and he would always tease me.”
Fortuin said his son had visited him on Sunday and they had sent each other music from their phones while Raylinn also asked for pictures of his siblings.
“This is my second child who has died. The other was a newborn.”
He said he had been at work when he received the news.
“I completely freaked out. I don’t have a clear picture yet of how my son died.”
Bronagh Casey, spokeswoman for Education MEC Donald Grant, said the incident had occurred during break time.
“Our priority is to ensure that all learners feel safe and secure. Western Cape Education Department officials were immediately on the scene and have already organised counselling and debriefing by our psychologists and counsellors.” - Cape Argus
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