Today's Labour News

Sunday Tribune reports that teachers at a high school in the Pinetown district invigilating exams on Friday were uneasy and afraid after gun-wielding robbers dressed as pupils held up staff the previous day.

The armed robbery, which happened on Thursday morning while pupils were writing exams, forced the school to close early, resulting in the Grade 8 and 9 pupils not sitting for their exams that afternoon. A police spokesperson confirmed that a case of business robbery was being investigated and reported: “It is alleged that unknown men entered the school in KwaNdengezi and held the staff before robbing them of their cellphones. No shots were fired and no injuries were reported.” The robbers apparently gained access to Dick Ndlovu High School dressed in school uniform and pretended to be from a neighbouring primary school. They they had been sent to ask for ink and were directed to the school principal, who was in the staff room with some staff members. Once there, the suspects forced teachers to lie on the ground and robbed them of their cellphones, at gunpoint. On the way out, the robbers stole a laptop from a car. Sadtu provincial secretary Nomarashiya Caluza reacted: “Between February and March we had more than 20 schools in the Pinetown district where such robberies happened and where criminals went to the extent of carrying speed points for teachers to use their bank cards. In as much as we understand that there is a safety strategy of the department, it maybe needs reviewing because it is not helping, and this is why we continue to have incidents such as these.”

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Anelisa Kubheka at Sunday Tribune

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