Black SA Teacher Assaulted At School in China, Left With Black Eye (PICS)
Nolusindiso Hleko, who teaches English, was allegedly assaulted by the human resource manager at a kindergarten school in Shanghai, China, where she worked. With a swollen black eye, Hleko on Thursday uploaded a video on YouTube, “My Worst Year Abroad”, detailing her harrowing ordeal after a disagreement with the preschool manager.
She has since left the country for Germany, which she had considered moving to from Korea before choosing China instead.
Hleko detailed her experience in a four-minute video clip in which she explained what happened and how she had to run for her life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD09gDeCzuQ?si=XeZz3Gr0-sDoR6QX
“On Wednesday, August 23, during a disagreement, the HR manager at my job, a guy, punched me in the face. After he punched me I was screaming, trying to get out of his office. He pushed me down on the couch, telling me I need to sit down.
“I screamed and I was trying to get my cellphone so I could take pictures and videos of what was happening. Instead, he grabbed my cellphone and said he didn’t have my cellphone anymore. I don’t know how I got out of that office, but somehow I got out and I was running in the passage of this kindergarten trying to get help.”
She met a woman who could speak English after she managed to get out of the preschool without her belongings, including her cellphone.
The woman called the police and they went back to the preschool. “When we arrived at the kindergarten, they gathered everything that belonged to me on the table, telling me the reason they were preventing me leaving is because they wanted me to calm down so they can call the police to resolve the issue,” she said.
Hleko said she made a video because there were so many workers abroad suffering at the hands of employers who disobey the law and treat them poorly.
“I am also making this video because I feel powerless in this situation,” she said.
“They told me that if I talk to anybody or go to the media about the situation that they would sue me or that I would have to go to jail and get deported. They also threatened to put me on some teacher’s blacklist in China so that I would never get a job in China.”
Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) spokesperson Clayson Monyela said he spoke to Hleko about her experience with the embassy.
He said if South Africans in another country suffer abuse or are subjected to harm, they should report the matter to the police in that country and inform the embassy.
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