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Concern as more pupils stabbed
A number of education stakeholders and parents remain concerned for pupils' safety as more stabbing incidents are reported on a weekly basis.
Cosas spokesperson Douglas Ngobeni said the quality of education should not be determined by where pupils went to school. Picture: iStock
Pupils are increasingly running out of safe space both inside the schoolyard and outside the gates.
On Friday a Grade 12 Langehoven High School pupil was rushed to hospital after she was
stabbed four times for her cellphone.
The Gauteng department of education spokesperson Steve Mabona said the Pretoria pupil was stable. “It is alleged she was stabbed outside the school premises in the afternoon by criminals after refusing to hand over her cellphone to them.”
In Pinetown, a 15-year-old boy was stabbed and killed by another pupil outside a school in the Ashley area on the same day.
Last month King Edward School pupil Hlompho Mbetse was stabbed to death outside a nightclub, allegedly by a fellow pupil.
Last November two boys, aged 11 and 13, were arrested in the Free State after a 13-year-old boy was stabbed to death at Kegomoditswe Primary School.
In 2013 Lagenhoven High School became a war zone and a pupil’s ear was cut off when two
groups of pupils attacked each other with axes, pangas and knives.
Capital Park Residence Association spokesperson Sam Moimane could not say where the Langehoven pupil was stabbed.
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“When we saw her at the scene she was covered in blood, so we could not pinpoint where the wound was,” he said.
He said the area around the school was dodgy and dangerous. “We have raised this issue two weeks ago, dealing with the criminal elements meant we have to go on top of the mount
between the zoo and the school, that’s where the criminals are hiding,” said Moimane.
He said before the hard lockdown they regularly hosted a mountain walk for the community which served as visibility.
Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng community safety spokesperson Crezane Bosch said the safety of the pupils and teachers at Langenhoven High School was under threat.
Bosch said the pupil was fighting for her life when she was admitted to the hospital. “This incident comes after numerous incidents have been reported over the last three years of pupils, teachers, security guards and general workers being brutally attacked and assaulted outside the school premises.”
Bosch said cases have been reported to both the Wonderboom and Central police stations and, to date, there was still no police visibility around the school and no arrests have been made.
Bosch said there was confusion as to which police station was responsible for the school as it is situated opposite the Pretoria Zoo on the border of Capital Park and Pretoria Central.
The SA Democratic Teachers Union general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said the stabbings were scary. “We must stand together… to support our schools inside and outside the perimeters,” he said.
