Police say steel frames and copper fittings are the target.
|||As the ANC celebrates its centenary, a school named after one of its former presidents is in a sorry state after being vandalised and targeted by thieves during the holidays.
On Wednesday, Sipho Magwaza, principal of KwaMashu’s Dr John Langalibalele Dube High, said the school had a shortage of desks after thieves targeted the institution over the holidays.
Magwaza said steel frames had been removed from desks, doors had been taken off their hinges and copper pipes and taps had also been stolen.
“We have a shortage of desks and will have to ask neighbouring schools to assist us. The thieves are selling the steel frames from the desks and the copper fittings at scrapyards to support their drug habit, because most are using whoonga (a concoction of heroin, rat poison and ARVs). These people are also using the drug at the school.
“On Monday, I had to rush to the school because I received a report that a chalkboard was being stolen. When I arrived, the thief dropped it and ran. Computers were also stolen from my office. This is what happens when communities do not respect their schools.”
To make matters worse, a few parents arrived yesterday to enrol their children.
“We are still struggling with late enrolments. We tried to get parents to enrol last year and some did, but it is still a problem,” said Magwaza.
The only good news was that the computer laboratory, which has elaborate security, including a thick steel door and gate, was untouched.
At nearby Inhlakanipho High School, a senior staff member, who would not be named because he was not allowed to speak to the media, said the school had all the necessary infrastructure in place and had received its stationery on time.
He added that the staff were aiming to improve on the school’s dismal 30 percent matric pass rate last year to above 50 percent this year by ensuring that time at school was used optimally.
Education MEC Senzo Mchunu said the department would compile a list of vandalised schools and then approach the ward councillors and local residents.
“We are going to ask them whether they want these schools to close down or if they will assist us to drive out these thieves and thugs. Churches are not targeted in these areas, so why are our schools not respected as places of learning?”
Meanwhile, two Umlazi sisters were in tears yesterday when they arrived at a Durban school to find they had not been enrolled there.
Dressed in full school uniform, Sindisiwe and Smangele Shozi could not contain their disappointment on being told that they were not registered to attend Durban Girls’ Secondary School.
Their father, Michael Langa, said he had taken his daughters to the school in August to apply for admission.
“We filled out the forms and were told that we would be informed about the outcome. We heard nothing further, so we returned to the school in December, and a teacher told us that I must buy the girls’ uniforms and there would be places for them on the day schools open.”
However, on Wednesday he was told that his daughters’ application forms could not be found and they were not enrolled at the school.
School principal L Bhagowat said the school had completed its 2012 admissions process in July and August last year.
“There is no teacher who can tell a parent to just show up at school with the uniform. There is a rigorous process and applications are decided upon by the admissions committee, and then parents are notified. We have accommodated as many pupils as possible and have increased our roll.”
Bhagowat added that she would check if Langa had made applications for his daughters at the school. - The Mercury
E-mail Kamini: kamini.padayachee @inl.co.za