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SowetanLive reports that there are growing calls for law enforcement and security to be intensified at schools following a number of fatal shooting incidents in various schools across the country.
At least four people (two pupils, a general assistant and a deputy principal) have died after three shooting incidents barely two weeks since schools reopened, sparking fears that violence will escalate if nothing is done. In an incident on 17 January in Etwatwa near Daveyton, on the East Rand, three gun-wielding men assaulted the principal of Caiphus Nyoka Secondary School, threatening to kill her if she did not resign. On Friday, Thembisile Ngendane was shot and killed outside Phomolong Secondary School in Tembisa. Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said “those tasked with ensuring that we are protected have to up their game and assist us. It’s disturbing and worrying that people can just wait for a teacher and shoot that teacher. The price of training a teacher is too much.” He added that it was time the police prioritised schools when conducting patrols as schools were a reflection of a violent society. Mugwena Maluleke of the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union, commented: “We cannot continue holding unending memorial services for our learners and educators without action being taken by our education department and communities to end these senseless killings. We urge the police to leave no stone unturned in investigating and securing tight prosecution and conviction.” Tim Hlongwane of the SA Principals Associations in Gauteng, indicated: “We advise our colleagues not to arrive too early (at school) or leave too late. Those are the times when these criminals attack.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Yoliswa Sobuwa and Isaac Mahlangu at SowetanLive
- Read too, Teachers fear for their lives after deputy principal gunned down outside school, at The Citizen (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page