Schools under siege
May 14 2008 11:24:01:800AM  - (SA)  
Jabulani Dlamini

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In the last five years or so there have been numerous reports of schools around the province being vandalised with anything of value being sold to make a quick buck.

In the most recent incidents the situation has gotten so bad that it is affecting the teaching of learners.

Mothusi, Karabelo, Mabolela, Lesedi, Maboloka, Morafe, Sehunelo, Legae and many other schools around Bloemfontein, as well as those in Welkom, Botshabelo and probably many more, have fallen victim to this syndicate(s).

In bringing this pathetic state of affairs to the attention of Express, two young men, Andile Mooketsi, ANC Youth League secretary for ward 13, and Fekisi Finger, chairman of the Young Communist League in the Phelindaba ward, called the situation “gravely serious”.

The syndicate goes for anything made of copper, computers, office machines, text and exercise books, encyclopeadias and anything else they can sell for money.

Among the most heartbreaking of these numerous cases is the plight faced by learners and teachers of the Mothusi Primary School in Rocklands, Bloemfontein.

The school, situated next to Seisa Ramabodu Stadium, has no working toilets or wash basins, because the thugs have helped themselves to all the pipes, tap heads and even a manhole cover which now poses a danger to the young learners.

Speaking to Express on Monday, the school’s desperate principal, Reuben Mothibeli, said he was at his wits end in terms of the situation.

“It is bad,” he said with a heavy sigh.

Mothibeli said everytime they closed a hole in the school’s perimetre fence the thugs simply opened it up again.

“We sometimes have to let the learners go home early due to this situation,” he said.

A human waste stench hangs heavily in the air as you enter the school’s toilets, because the young children sometimes do not understand that they cannot use the toilets to relieve themselves because they cannot flush.

“We have asked about four private households next to the school for us to use their toilets and every now and then we have to go and clean them ourselves as the learners leave a mess behind,” he said.

Mothibeli said a gift from Macmillan Publishers of some 10 000 text books had also been stolen the previous week.

Express also visited the Karabelo Primary School in Rocklands, as well as the Sehunelo High School in Batho, where similar incidents took place and some of the equipment has already been replaced, in some cases for the third time.

Mothibeli says they are afraid to accept a donation of some 40 computers offered by a computer company as that would be like a gift to the criminals who have burgled the school every month this year.

“We call on the community to please work with us to address this situation and help us catch the culprits,” pleaded Mothibeli.

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