Former Gqeberha water polo coach David Mackenzie, publicly accused of molesting a teenage pupil, now wants the father of the boy who took his own life to cough up R30m, accusing him of reputational damage.
The latest court action is a counterclaim to Mill Park businessman Charl Kruger’s R62m lawsuit against Mackenzie and St Andrew’s College, whom he accused of failing to act on suspicions that young Thomas was being sexually groomed.
In papers filed with the Makhanda high court this week, Mackenzie accused Kruger of leaking privileged information to the media.
He said as a result of the allegations — for which he was never criminally tried — he was unable to find employment and had suffered a number of personal setbacks.
After investigating the matter, the National Prosecuting Authority had declined to prosecute.
Contacted for comment, Kruger said: “We believe Mr Mackenzie’s counterclaim is wholly without merit and will be rejected by the courts.”
Mackenzie had coached Thomas at the prestigious all-boys school in Makhanda prior to the then-16-year-old hanging himself from the school’s sanatorium window on November 18 2018 — the night of Mackenzie’s bachelor party.
In court papers, Mackenzie claims he suffered undue reputational damage after his personal information was allegedly unlawfully accessed by Kruger, who in turn leaked it to the media.
He is represented by attorneys Danie Gouws, Tiaan van Schalkwyk and Jeanne Scheffer, of Danie Gouws Incorporated, and advocates Bruce Dyke SC, Lodene Gagiano, and Kate Morris.
The counterclaim centres on the My Only Story podcast which aired in late 2021.
The podcast had detailed the alleged events leading up to Thomas’s tragic death.
Mackenzie’s legal team claims the podcaster had made use of privileged information from the police docket which was compiled when the allegations of sexual grooming and abuse emerged.
In November 2022, Kruger, his wife Elizabeth, and their younger son, instituted a civil claim against Mackenzie, St Andrews, where Mackenzie was also a deputy house master, former headmaster Alan Thompson, and the SA Council for Educators (SACE), among others.
While the school indicated at the time that it would defend the court action, Mackenzie has also asked for it to be dismissed with costs.
In his counterclaim, he said it was through Kruger’s actions that he lost his job and had since been unable to find employment.
The married father had gone on to teach at Reddam House Bedfordview, but was dismissed for being dishonest about his past.
He has since moved home to Gqeberha.
The popular podcast ran over a four-month period between September and December 2021.
According to court documents, listeners were left with the impression that Mackenzie was a person of low moral standing, that he was a paedophile, had sexually and mentally abused schoolboys, and that he was a predatory person who became a teacher so that he could have easy access to children.
Taking all of this into account, he said, people had come to the conclusion that he was responsible for Thomas’s death.
Gouws said further civil action was pending against several other parties and that summonses were in the process of being served by the sheriff of the court.
The Kruger family believe Thomas hanged himself because of depression caused by Mackenzie who, they allege, had sexually groomed and abused their son and other boys at the school.
However, Mackenzie has hit back, adamant that Thomas had suffered from long-standing depression for which he had been prescribed medication which he never took.
Mackenzie vehemently denied any wrongdoing, saying he had never sexually groomed, molested or enticed Thomas or any other pupil to engage in ill-disciplined conduct while under his care.
The Krugers, meanwhile, said in their court papers that Thomas had been a fun-loving, content child, who achieved academically and in sport, particularly water polo.
He joined St Andrew’s in January 2016 as a boarder.
It is alleged that by 2018 Thomas had become withdrawn. He started going for counselling in April that year.
According to his father, Thomas told them he was unhappy at St Andrew’s and wanted to change schools.
This had prompted Kruger to temporarily move to Makhanda and take his son out of the hostel so that he could continue as a day scholar.
But when they failed to see an improvement, the family decided to move him back to Gqeberha.
However, the move back home was short-lived as Thomas apparently begged to return to school, claiming that he missed his friends.
Determined to see the youngster happy, his parents reluctantly agreed.
On November 14 2018, Thomas attended a school team-building tour called “Journey”.
Three days later he walked up to a teacher, admitting to having tobacco in his possession.
It is assumed Thomas would have known this would result in him being sent from camp to the school’s sanatorium as punishment.
At about 9.30am the next day, Thomas was found with a rope around his neck, hanging outside the sanatorium window.
Mackenzie eventually resigned from the school with immediate effect after he was allegedly caught escorting another pupil from the sanatorium to his flat.
In November 2022, retired Gqeberha judge Dayalin Chetty, who was asked to chair review board proceedings into the allegations of misconduct, concluded that Mackenzie had in fact groomed boys at the school.
Chetty found further that Thompson and others at St Andrews had also not done their best to investigate the complaints against Mackenzie, and that they had failed to take appropriate steps to correct, counsel or discipline him when the complaints were received.
While the review board did not make any findings of sexual abuse, it was unanimously decided that Mackenzie had groomed boys and that Thompson had breached his duty of care to the pupils.
Thompson has since resigned.
HeraldLIVE
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