Johannesburg - Gauteng Schools are shockingly becoming crime scenes; learners attend school carrying dangerous weapons such as firearms and knives.
A learner was stabbed at Eldorado Park Secondary School, south of Johannesburg, while the Gauteng Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Community Safety and the Education Committee were at the school on an unannounced oversight visit.
The committees had to adjourn their meeting with the Principal and School Management Team to allow them to speedily attend to the incident.
The learner was allegedly stabbed by an illegal intruder at the school, who fled the scene after the incident on Tuesday.
The learner was promptly stabilised and rushed to a nearby health care facility.
The joint unannounced oversight visit was part of the committees’ Focus Intervention Study (FIS) on assessing the effectiveness of school safety interventions in fighting violence and crime in schools.
‘’The incident highlights the scourge of violence and criminality that exists in some Gauteng schools, which prompted the FIS that the two committees are engaged in,’’ said committee chairperson Bandile Masuku.
During the visit, committee members were shown multiple knives, which were confiscated from learners. They also learned about a learner who brought a gun to school the previous day.
‘’Shocking incidents like these cannot be left unattended as they are not isolated cases and need urgent interventions by government and civil society. We will table the committees’ findings and recommendations during a House Sitting and compel the Department of Education to act,’’ Masuku said.
Last week, a learner was stabbed with a broken bottle outside a Lenasia school and wounded in an alleged gang fight.
In February this year, a Grade 10 learner from Geluksdal High School in Ekurhuleni, Shawn Mphela, was stabbed and killed.
Again, in the same month, Grade 10 learner Tumelo Jwili, 17, was stabbed to death at Sebokeng, Vanderbijlpark.
The committees will host a stakeholder engagement session on August 31, 2023, bringing various experts together to come up with recommendations that will form part of the consolidated report for tabling at the House.
The Star