It was a sombre mood as community members, pupils and politicians alike filled up the Spirit Ambassadors International Church in Nzhelele in Limpopo yesterday.
Her family had hoped “she could achieve things we have not been able to achieve”, her brother Kenneth Mavhunga told City Press outside the family home in Nzhelele in the Vhembe district a day before the funeral. “She was an independent thinker who always wanted to be in control of her situation, no matter what. As a family, we would not be surprised if this assault and bullying were not the first she had experienced, but she decided to keep it to herself. That was the type of person she was. She wanted to deal with things herself,” he said.
“Yes, she was my sister, but to me she was more like a daughter. She was a smart girl and that is why our parents decided to take her to Mbilwi [Secondary School] – because of the status of the school.” “My mother suffers from anxiety attacks, a condition for which she takes medication. There is a possibility that she [Lufuno] took that medication because she was the one who normally administered it to my mother when she would forget to take it. So we believe that some of the medication was in her room,” he said.
Even though Lufuno had never mentioned being bullied at school, Kenneth told City Press that his sister once confided in their mother about how “kids at the school were always fighting”. Bullying has always been there, but the fact that in this instance it escalated the way it did should worry us all.Mbilwi Secondary School principal, Cedric Lidzhade, told City Press that he would not comment.
The teenager accused of assaulting Lufuno appeared in the Thohoyandou Children’s Magistrate’s Court on Friday.