Durban - After two separate bloody incidents at two schools in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday, education stakeholders are calling for action and not a reactionary approach to the issue of school safety.
A teacher was wounded at Buhlebethu Primary School in Inanda when men posing as parents opened fire on him after they robbed his colleagues of their cellphones and took school equipment. He is recovering at an undisclosed hospital.
Also on Wednesday, two pupils stabbed each other at Old Mill Secondary school near Empangeni in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
Grade 8 and 9 pupils stabbed each other at the school in the King Cetshwayo District. Both were taken to hospital and were reportedly recovering from the stab wounds.
Despite Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu describing the Inanda school as having the best security measures, with a security guard, CCTV cameras and an alarm with a panic button, education stakeholders yesterday continued to call for him to deploy even tougher security measures to ensure safety at the province’s schools.
On Wednesday, the police arrested four of the seven suspects involved in the Buhlebethu school shooting.
Provincial police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele said four men between the ages of 19 and 21 had been arrested in KwaMashu and six cellphones that had been taken during the school robbery, had been recovered.
She said the suspects would appear in the Ntuzuma magistrate’s court on Friday.
Mshengu visited the school and the hospital where the teacher was recovering yesterday.
He said seven men had accessed the school under false pretences, pretending to be parents looking for a place at the school for their children.
Mshengu said the security guard had accompanied them to the principal’s office, where they spoke to the principal who had indicated that the school was no longer accepting pupils because it was full.
“They then left the office pretending to be going to other schools to look for space. They entered the staff room and started robbing teachers of the equipment and other valuables.
“The principal heard the teachers screaming and saw the mugging through the CCTV cameras. She then pressed the panic button and shouted on the intercom for help.
“The criminals ran out of the staffroom and on their way out met one of the teachers, shooting him and running away. Fortunately he survived,” said Mshengu.
He said the teacher was in a stable condition in hospital and would soon be discharged.
Mshengu called on the community to assist the police in bringing the suspects to book.
“These criminals were identified through the CCTV cameras. Five of them are well-known in the community and that information has been handed over to the police. We are confident the police will arrest the remaining three soon,” said Mshengu.
He said he called on the community members to come up with information about the suspects’ whereabouts.
“The criminals took advantage of the fact that parents are in and out of schools looking for space,"he said.