“Please stop stealing from our schools. We also deserve quality education.”
This is the desperate cry from Gauteng pupils whose schools have been vandalised since the start of lockdown last year.
In a presentation to the education portfolio committee last week, the Gauteng education department said 401 schools had been hit by criminals, some broken into, stripped of their infrastructure or burnt.
The department needs at least R53m to repair at least 54 schools damaged this year alone, money it has not budgeted for.
Parents and pupils to whom Sowetan spoke at the weekend said they felt helpless watching thieves strip away their infrastructure and, ultimately, their right to education.
“Our school was broken into, leaving some of the classes with damaged ceilings, no doors and windows,” said a 15-year-old pupil from Tetelo Secondary School in Protea North, Soweto.
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“The thieves wanted to steal the digital smartboard. This is very sad because we also deserve quality education but there are people who want to steal the little that we have. Our parents cannot afford to take us to schools in town.”
Tetelo, which has been repeatedly vandalised, was listed as one of the 20 schools targeted by looters during last month’s unrest. Its roof and doors were damaged.
When Sowetan visited the school on Friday there was a patroller and about three school brigades at the entrance.
Phiri Primary School, also in Soweto, has been vandalised three times this year alone.
Some of the school’s windows were broken and items such as the school telephone and computers were stolen.
A teacher who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “They stole the school’s phone and it becomes difficult to make phone calls. Just imagine when there is an emergency and we don’t have airtime to make calls on our phones. The situation is seriously depressing,” she said.
Nkosana Luvuno, a parent at Willowmead Secondary School in Lenasia South, said break-ins happened every second day at the school.
“They are stealing toilet taps, windows and classroom doors. The most unfortunate part is that it is [always] the same community members who are behind the vandalism of schools. It is so sad that they take out their anger on school properties during their protests.
“At times you find community members toy-toying for electricity and then they go to burn the school. Even when the electricity is restored, the classrooms are still burnt and our children are suffering,” he said.
Another parent, Joe Sitjie from Braamfischerville in Soweto, said it was painful to see people destroy their own assets.
“To protect our schools, we started a community patrol that’s happening during the day and night. But this is affecting learners who require afternoon classes because we don’t allow anyone in the school premises after 5pm. Even during the protests no-one was allowed to come near our schools,” he said.
Albert Chanee, the deputy director-general of strategic planning management for Gauteng education, said criminals mostly targeted learner and teaching equipment and tech items such as computers, tablets or laptops.
“The most common target areas in schools are administration blocks for information and communication technology equipment and nutrition centres for food items,” Chanee said.
As part of preventive measures Chanee said the department, together with community police forums, had mobilised the community to also provide support to the schools.
The department has established an “Adopt a Cop” programme to have police help look after schools.
But its report states that this initiative has not been effective so far and officials have asked for more police visibility, especially at night, and to have schools linked to npolice stations close to them.
“There are also 7,500 patrollers that have been deployed to township and high-risk schools. Schools rely on minimum security support in the form of patrollers who are not expected to do security work,” Chanee said.
Patrollers reintroduced to safeguard schools
The reintroduction of patrollers is among preventive measures being rolled out to protect high-risk township schools from being broken into. According to a presentation by the Gauteng portfolio committee on basic education, community involvement through community policing forums and the use of patrollers are some of the measures used to stop school vandalism in the province.
The patrollers are expected to help with gathering intelligence, which they would share with law-enforcement agencies. Some of the preventive measures highlighted included:
• An Adopt a Cop programme where the SA Police Service has linked school with officers at local police stations, including police patrols in the evenings;
• e-Security, which will see the department of basic education roll out an electronic system in high-priority schools, which will be linked to police stations and armed response units, and give alert when break-ins occur:
• 7,500 patrollers have been deployed to township schools to help enhance police visibility, monitor the schools and report any criminal activity; and
• A big communications campaign to be called “You touch our schools, you are touching the future of our children” to be led by community policing forums to protect the schools with community involvement at the centre of it. schools
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