The principal of the Ithuteng Trust school was taken to hospital after collapsing following her appearance in the Protea Magistrate’s Court in Soweto, SABC reports.

Jackey Maarohanye faces charges of assault and kidnapping after allegedly being part of a group that held a reporter and driver from the Sowetan newspaper hostage for more than six hours at the school at the weekend.

She was remanded in custody until Friday as the State needed more time to investigate and to get outstanding documents. A date for a bail application would only be set at the next court appearance.

Her co-accused Patricia Malawa was granted R2,000 bail.

Maarohanye was arrested on Sunday night. Earlier in the day, police arrested 72 students and parents who had tried to prevent police who had come to arrest Maarohanye from gaining entry to the school.

Gauteng police spokesman Constable Sefako Xaba said the group had locked the school gates and threw sticks and stones at the police. They were also expected to appear in court on Monday.

Reporter Vusi Ndlovu had gone to the school to interview Maarohanye and was locked up and assaulted alongside driver Mabu Nkadimeng for over six hours in the school hall by students and parents on Saturday. The group wanted the Sowetan to apologise for articles published in the newspaper.

Maarohanye, once known as the “Angel of Soweto”, was earlier this year accused of defrauding donors of millions of rands. M-Net’s Carte Blanche aired an investigative documentary accusing Maarohanye of using the plight of vulnerable pupils to solicit money from donors by fabricating their personal histories.

The expose followed her arrest last year for public violence and malicious damage to property when her pupils, allegedly under her instruction, burned tyres and blocked roads over the police’s alleged failure to solve the death of a fellow pupil. The pupil died in a fire at the school and Maarohanye allegedly insisted that a hut on the premises of the trust had been petrol-bombed.

Sapa