Cape Town - Teachers and pupils at the Thomas Wildeschutt Senior Primary School will be starting the new school year on a sour note after burglars vandalised parts of the school during the summer holidays.
The office, reception areas, bookroom and kitchen were vandalised when burglars broke into the premises at the weekend, getting away with stationery packs, reams of paper and toilet paper among other things.
The school posted on its Facebook page that teachers were there on Friday and everything was in order then, but when they returned on Monday they were met with a mess.
Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk confirmed the incident and said the intruders were spotted by a security guard at the school.
“Two unidentified males were seen entering the feeding scheme room."
"When the suspect saw the guards, they ran away. The guards managed to apprehend one suspect and subsequently called the police."
"The suspect sustained minor injuries at the time of arrest by the security guards and the other suspect is still at large.”
Grade 5 teacher at the school, Lynn Pretorius said vandalism at the school had happened before and was becoming something “normal”for them.
“Things are getting really bad. If we put burglar bars on our windows, they remove that and if they can’t they come through the roof."
"If they want to be in a classroom, they find a way.”
Pretorius alleged that there were investigations about a shopkeeper close to the school selling stationery packs, similar to those stolen from the school.
“It affects us very negatively, we have been teaching for a long time so we have favourite books and to discover that it's gone, it's not pleasant."
“They target things like clocks that are quick sellers."
"The desks are in disarray, you have to clean up then you are not able to focus on the learners because you have to clean up.”
She added the theft disrupted their planning and registration of new pupils on Monday.
“We had to wait for police to come before we could enter classes, we lost half a day, hope we can put on our masks and receive our children with good spirits.”