Pupils in Langa are being intimidated and robbed of their phones and lunch money while on their way to school.
|||Pupils in Langa are being intimidated and robbed of their phones and lunch money while on their way to school.
On Monday an education official who works in the area told Education MEC Donald Grant that there had been an increase in gangsterism in the area “over the past year or so”.
Lance Abrahams, institutional management and governance manager for the Western Cape Education Department, said that this was why there was a policeman at the school gate at Langa High.
“Every morning he is patrolling up here.”
Grant was visiting the school to monitor tardiness.
Abrahams said children had complained that they were being “interfered with” when walking to and from the station.
He said principals had held a meeting with the community to discuss the problem.
Bonakele Busika, principal of Kulani High in Langa, said it was difficult to say whether gangsters were the ones robbing and intimidating pupils and added that some pupils’ phones and lunch money had been stolen between the Langa train station and the school.
He said that on Friday some pupils had to stay after school for detention and afterwards he had to take them to the station because they would be “vulnerable”.
Grant’s spokeswoman Bronagh Casey said the school had a working relationship with the police in ensuring that no pupils were intimidated by gangsters when they walked to and from school.
“Visible police presence is making a difference in this regard and we are grateful for their support.”
About pupils arriving late, he said less than 6 percent of pupils had been late on Monday. Many pupils commuted to school and the school was doing its utmost to manage tardiness, he said.
“Measures to curb late-coming vary from school to school. While some measures such as detention work at some schools, at others it does not,” Casey said.
She said schools were not allowed to deny pupils entry.
ilse.fredericks@inl.co.za - Cape Argus