Mahikeng - The North West provincial government has set aside R1,2 million towards the province's school safety programme to fight crime and criminality in and around school grounds, Premier Job Mokgoro said on Friday.
"This will be done in collaboration with the department of education and all other stakeholders, including the SAPS. There will be unannounced on-the-spot search and seizure operations by uniformed and non-uniformed law enforcement officers in and around school premises and we believe that through this approach, drugs and weapons will be removed from school premises," he said.
The North West School Safety Summit, held in Rustenburg on March 13, resolved that at least 200 security guards would be posted at schools which have been identified as high risk.
Maths teacher Gadimang Mokolobate was stabbed to death by a 17-year-old learner in September 2018 at Ramotshere Moiloa High School, in Dinokana Village, Lehurutshe, outside Zeerust. The incident happened after Mokolobate reprimanded the pupil, who refused to stand in a queue.
The pupil then ran home, fetched a knife and returned to the school where he stabbed Mokolobate. The teacher was rushed to a local clinic where he was certified dead on arrival.
The teenager has been sentenced to 10 year imprisonment for the murder.
In another incident, a parent attacked a teacher at Leema Primary School in Tlhatlhaganyane in February this year. The parent is before the Mankwe Magistrate's Court in Mogwase to face a charge of assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
In Tlhabane, two primary school teachers are facing separate charges of assaulting learners at school. They are appearing in the Bafokeng Magistrate's Court in Tlhabane.