Fidelity ADT’s brand ambassador and Springbok rugby player, Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira visited Weltevreden Park Primary School recently, to talk to the children about bullying.
The visit was one of the Beast’s regular visits to many of the schools across Gauteng where he often talks to the children about how to stand up to bullying, which is a general problem in many schools.
Beast said, “It is not a nice feeling to be bullied, for example, calling another person ‘ginger’ is offensive and rude.” He also emphasised the importance of treating girls with respect and reflected on some of his personal childhood experiences.
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Beast spoke to the children about respecting their peers. “When I was little, I was naughty. I used to keep my parents busy and one of the things I didn’t do so well was respect my peers. So I was actually a bit of a bully,” he said.
Nicholas Govender, community development manager for Fidelity ADT said, “It was a pleasure to visit the school and see the reaction of the children to their hero.”
The excitement on faces of the learners at the school was evident as they cheered and shouted out the name ‘Beast’ throughout the morning, and excited learner David van der Westhuizen, asked if he could get an autograph for his dad who is a die-hard Sharks supporter.
“A lot of attention is paid to cyberbullying but the real threat often sits in the playground and the classroom. Children are five times more likely to be bullied at school than online and recent statistics show that 87 per cent of bullied children have in fact been bullied at their school,” Nicholas concluded.
