Community members are still reeling from shock after a local primary school was robbed of 41 laptops and 25 tablets.
Unusual, but not unexpected, this ugly scene played itself out in the early hours of last Thursday at the Khulasizwe Primary School in Mqantsa Section.
Police spokesperson Capt Ralidzhivha Manyadza confirmed the incident and revealed that a further 25 desktop computers were also stolen.
“At about 2.30am in the morning, the school’s deputy principal, received a call from a security company informing her about the burglary. She rushed to the school where she found the police already waiting for her. Together with the police the deputy principal went in to investigate and discovered that the school was indeed broken into.
Forty-one laptops, 25 desktop computers, 25 tablets, two servers, two projectors and R1 900 of the school’s petty cash were all stolen,” said Manyadza.
He added that police are hot on the tracks of the suspects who haven’t been arrested yet.
“We would like to appeal to the community to help us track down these criminals because they are taking away the future of our children. Those stolen items were meant to benefit the entire community of Tembisa, so help the police bring these people to justice and get back what was stolen,” said Manyadza.
The estimated value of the stolen items amount to over R500 000.
Community member Margaret Masilo said the entire community is in shock and can’t really believe that this has just happened.
“It’s actually an embarrassment and a disgrace. These were not normal people because, I mean, how can a sane person steal from the children? Their own children were benefiting from those computers and now this is a setback and a sad day for the whole township. The painful part is that these people are from this township and somewhere there are people who have information but are protecting the thieves,” said Masilo.
The Gauteng Department of Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi has also weighed in on this matter and voiced out his disappointment.
“We are extremely concerned that valuable resources in schools which are meant to enhance the delivery of quality education to our learners are seen by some as an opportunity to feed their criminal deeds and rob our learners off their right to quality basic education.
“Our schools have now became hunting grounds for criminals. We would like to appeal to the community at large to work collectively with law enforcement agencies and bring forth any information that will ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book and justice is served. We can’t postpone the future of our children,” said Lesufi.
