Cape Town - About 14 schools in the Hanover Park and Manenberg communities are caught between running gang battles with two reporting damage as bullets pierced school windows and a prefabricated classroom.
Several residents have also been killed and others wounded during the sporadic shooting incidents in the areas recently.
In a video shared on social media, pupils in one of the classrooms at Atwood Primary School in Hanover Park are seen running towards the door in panic, with others crying.
The teacher calls them back inside the classroom and instructs them to sit in their chairs and lie their heads flat on the tables. The teacher attempts to console the scared pupils.
In another classroom pupils took cover on the floor and sheltered beneath desks.
Western Cape Education Department (WCED) spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said counselling was arranged for all schools who requested or identified the need for counselling support.
“The Safe Schools Call Centre received 24 reports from 14 schools in the Hanover Park and Manenberg areas for the period May 2 and 25. Two schools reported that bullets penetrated windows and another school reported bullets that penetrated their Grade R Prefab building. Fortunately, no injuries of staff or learners were reported.
“The WCED has engaged with the provincial SAPS office, who instructed the local SAPS to respond more effectively,” said Hammond.
Children's Commissioner Christina Nomdo condemned the filming of pupils saying the people must be aware that filming and distributing videos of children who are experiencing trauma was not only inappropriate but leads to secondary trauma.
“Children who are affected by or exposed to violence need to be provided with trauma counselling. Turning the tide on violence requires focused intervention in the predisposing factors in our society such as endemic experiences of poverty and inequality. We urgently need to increase safety measures in and around our schools,” said Nomdo.
Police oversight and Community Safety MEC Reagen Allen said they were assisting affected schools through various means including the deployment of the Department of Community Safety physical security support team as an interim intervention for an agreed time period to stabilise volatile situations at schools.
Allen also recently visited the Manenberg area following the shootings in the area and said his department was in the process of finalising the reintroduction of a reward system to report where illegal firearms are kept.
Police spokesperson Wesley Twigg said as part of efforts to bring change and restore safety in Manenberg and Hanover Park, police operations under way in the communities have led to about seven arrests relating to the possession of unlicensed firearms, possession of ammunition and the possession of drugs respectively.
Once charged the suspects are expected to appear in the Athlone Magistrate’s Court.
Cape Times