Kimberley - One high school learner has died and another has been seriously injured during two separate incidents believed to be connected to gangsterism in schools.
The events have caused outrage amongst communities in Ritchie and Galeshewe, raising fears that gangsterism in schools in the Northern Cape is spiralling out of control.
During the first incident, Eugene Williams, a 16-year-old Grade 9 learner from Rietvale High School in Ritchie, was stabbed to death with sheep shears by a fellow student on Tuesday evening.
Eyewitnesses said that Williams became embroiled in a fight with two brothers, when one of the boys stabbed him while the other held him down.
“Eugene was sitting by the tuck-shop when a girl came past and started swearing at him. He threw rocks at her and she ran away, only to return with a sjambok, which she used to hit him over his body. The two brothers then intervened - the youngest held him down, while the other stabbed him with half a pair of sheep shears,” one eyewitness said.
The owner of the house in Freedom Park where Williams died, said she saw Williams running after his attacker, through her yard at around 8pm on Tuesday evening.
“He came running through my yard after his attacker. He was asking for a knife, apparently to attack the boy who had stabbed him. He was bleeding profusely from his chest area and could not even raise his arm to open the back gate of my yard. We told him to calm down and then he fell to the ground as his attacker ran away. We tried to stop the bleeding and called an ambulance but he died after about 45 minutes. The ambulance only arrived about two hours later,” the home-owner said.
Community members in Ritchie and Rietvale on Wednesday attributed the spike in violent crime amongst schoolchildren to drug use and gangsterism.
“Gangsterism and drug use is killing Ritchie, and the problems in our community are spiralling out of control. We are not even safe in our own homes anymore as gang members terrorise our community,” they said.
“Despite the morals and values we try to instil in our children, they still get influenced at school by gangs and drug dealers. We are losing hope fast and do not know which way to go for help anymore.”
Spokesman for the Northern Cape Department of Education, Sydney Stander, on Wednesday said an Education Support Services Unit would be visiting the school today to provide psychological support in the form of counselling for the learners.
Police spokesman, Lieutenant Sergio Kock, confirmed the incident, adding that a seventeen-year-old boy had been arrested and appeared in the Kimberley Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
During a second gangsterism-related incident, which also happened on Tuesday, a 19-year-old Grade 11 learner from Thabane High School in Galeshewe, Thabang Motswana, was seriously injured when he was stabbed with a knife in the eye, allegedly by a fellow student.
Speaking from his hospital bed in Kimberley, where he was about to undergo surgery to save his eye, Motswana said the incident happened just outside the school building in Nobengula Street at around 2pm.
“The guy who attacked me is well known as a prominent gang member in school. He grabbed my friend’s cap and I said he should return it. Then a fistfight broke out and he pulled out a knife, with which he stabbed me in the eye. Doctors are still not sure if I will ever be able to see again,” he said.
Motswana added that gang members were known to terrorise and bully others if they did not bring them money to school, as was the case with his friend.
Motswana’s mother added that she was terrified about the safety of schoolchildren. “We call on the Department of Education to employ security personnel to search learners for drugs and weapons daily. Our children are in school to learn, not to worry about being stabbed,” she said.
Stander, however, said the Department of Education had no record of the incident.
Kock was able to confirm the incident, saying that the Kagisho Police were investigating a case of GBH after a stabbing took place in Nobengula Street on September 9.
“At approximately 2.25pm an 18-year-old male stabbed a 19-year-old male with a knife. The victim sustained an injury on top of his left eye. The 18-year-old suspect was arrested and should appear in the Galeshewe Magistrate’s Court soon,” Kock said.
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