Post-mortem results received by the family on Tuesday recorded the cause of death as multiple injuries, but did not specify whether the fatal injuries were on the young boy's body or the head, his grandmother Morwadi Phekola said.

Odirile was admitted at the Koster hospital on May 13 and died on May 16, three days before his tenth birthday. He was allegedly beaten up by a 17-year-old Grade 7 learner at Kgalagatsane primary school on May 10.

The teenager allegedly clapped Odirile on the head and pushed him down the stairs at the double-storey school. As the younger boy rolled down, the teenager followed him and trampled on him on the ground below.

The incident was not reported at school and Odirile was also quiet about it at home.

He however spent the weekend limping and by Monday had lost the use of his arms and legs, could not eat and urinated blood, his mother Daisy Mafora said.

She said only then did Odirile, who was in grade 5, tell his family that he had been attacked at school, as his mother was preparing to go there and report that he was ill and could not attend.

North West police spokesman Captain Sam Tselanyane said the teenager accused of Odirile's murder appeared  in the Koster magistrate's court on Monday.

He was not asked to plead and his case was postponed to June 6. He will be kept in custody at a child and youth centre.

Tselanyane said a case of assult with the intention to cause grevious bodily harm was initially opened but was changed to murder following Odirile's death.

North West education and sport development member of the executive council Sello Lehari said he was shocked and saddened by the incident.

"As a department we have never expected such to happen to our learners. Last week we lost two learners who perished in a fatal bus accident at Groot Marico and other sustained minor injuries," Lehari said.

He said the department was strongly opposed to bullying in schools and encouraged learners to report this to teachers and principals.

Odirile will be buried in Koster on Saturday.

ANA