JOHANNESBURG - The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said that its preliminary findings indicated that the principal of a Limpopo school where a teenager was bullied failed to take appropriate action when her family alerted him to the incident.

The commission visited the Mbilwi Secondary School on Wednesday after a video of Lufuno Mavhunga being attacked by a fellow pupil went viral.

The 15-year-old teenager allegedly committed suicide following the assault.

Her alleged attacker was arrested on Wednesday.

The SAHRC's Victor Mavhidula said that they'd been left angry and disappointed by the principal's failure to intervene in the matter.

"The family forwarded him the video and asked him what was happening here. He said that he was not aware and that he would follow up. BUt he was aware because the matter was reported to him already."

Limpopo education authorities are expected to visit the school on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Ipeleng Cares Foundation said that the issue of bullying was heavily undermined in the country and often viewed as conflict rather than peer abuse.

The foundation's Ipeleng Mofokeng: "Bullying is something that is close to my heart because as a child I was also bullied and I realised that it is very undermined. The South African system has opted to look at bullying as a conflict rather than the clear abuse that it is."

Source: EWN