Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi has appealed to the police to make school robbery cases their priority as they are hampering the country’s education system.
He was commenting after criminals robbed a newly-opened multi-million-rand Menzi Primary School in Tsakane, Ekurhuleni, of all 185 learners’ tablets, teachers’ laptops and data projectors.
The R105 million school was unveiled amid much fanfare by Lesufi and Premier David Makhura when schools opened last Wednesday.
It’s alleged that criminals tied-up two patrollers and locked them in one of the rooms, before stealing the new equipment which included a Plasma TV and a Digital Video Recorder for cameras.
Lesufi says over 20 schools in Duduza were robbed last month and they opened cases with the police but nothing has been done.
“This is a destruction an unnecessary one, we hope he law enforcement agencies would assist us, we’re going back to the community tomorrow afternoon, we’re saying to the community give us who did this, so that we can hand them over to law enforcement agencies. It’s not even the first time, we asked the law enforcement agencies to say prioritise us. The entire month of December there’s no single school in Duduza they’ve got almost 21 schools there, there is no single school that was not broken into, and nothing happened up until today,” says Lesufi.
Meanwhile, parents of learners from the Menzi Primary School have expressed outrage following the break-in
A large group of parents have gathered outside the school to express their anger and frustration following the break-in at the school. They say this act of criminality is unacceptable and the perpetrators need to be swiftly brought to book.
Many of the parents have criticized the security measures at the school, claiming that the security is not sufficient and it needs to be beefed up to prevent further incidents. Parents are also concerned about the education of their children, as all the learners tablets were stolen, leaving them without any form of learning material.
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