Police responded to violent unrest at a south Durban high school on Tuesday, when hundreds of pupils apparently stormed a neighbouring property in a bid to remove the occupants and claim the space for themselves.
Sizwe Lombo, a 21-year-old who lives on the property in Seaview with his mother, was injured in the fracas.
Lombo explained that the mob descended on his home while he was preparing breakfast. He said they were armed with bricks and rocks and that when he tried to stop them, they attacked him.
Lombo said Tuesday’s unrest was preceded by an incident on Monday morning, when their home was vandalised and ransacked and he believed the issue was overcrowding at Phambili Secondary School.
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“Currently they have - I believe in Grade 9 or Grade 10 - close to 60 to 70 pupils per class,” he said. “They felt that if they could get our premises, that would solve the problem.”
But, Lombo explained, he and his mother - a widow - had been legally occupying the property for almost 20 years.
Basic Education spokesperson Kwazi Mthethwa yesterday condemned the violence and said the MEC for Basic Education in the province, Mthandeni Dlungwana, urged authorities and law enforcement agencies to “deal decisively, and without mercy, with all these criminal elements”.