The National School Governing Bodies Association (NSGBA) on Tuesday added its voice to the loud calls for the spate of killings and violence happening in schools around the Vaal Triangle to come to an end.
The body is responsible for overseeing all SGB’s in the country’s nine province.
The recent call follows after the recent brutal stabbing of a Grade 11 learner Thabo Motaung, aged 17, inside Tharabollo Secondary School premises in Palm Springs Sebokeng.
He was apparently attacked in what is believed to be part of ongoing school gang war rivalries prevalent among learners from different schools in the area.
Unfortunately, Motaung succumbed to injuries inflicted by using a knife and was certified dead by paramedics.
Thabiso Radebe, the national chairperson of the NSGBA, told Vaal Observer commenting on the incident that it’s alleged leaners from Tharabollo allegedly went to the neighboring Lakeside High School on the fateful day of May 02 wherein they forced entry and broke the school gates and some windows.
He said: “According to the information we received Thabo’s death is to be blamed on the gangster groups. It is alleged that some of the learners are part of the two rivalries gang’s operating from Orange farm and Evaton West, Mkhelele.”
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ondolence message: The death of Thabo Motaung learner at Tharabollo secondary school. (Evaton Palm Springs)
The association send it’s heartfelt condolences to the family and school for the untimely death of Thabo Motaung a Grade 11 boy learner at Tharabollo secondary school in Sedibeng West district SW 8).
This stabbing to death incident happened on Thursday 2 May inside the premises of the above mentioned school.
Today Monday 6 May, the stakeholders meeting was held at Tharabollo secondary school and agreed to heighten the CPF and Evaton police station patrols to cover two Secondary schools :Lakeside and Tharabollo respectively.
It understood that the learners from Tharabollo secondary school went to Lakeside secondary school on the day of the incident .
They forced entry into the school in the process they caused some damages on the school gates and windows.
Stakeholders made the following recommendations:
A parent meeting with all the parents for Tharabollo secondary school is scheduled to take place on the 18 May, with Lakeside secondary still to identify their date.
We noted that the GDE district office must close the existing gaps in terms of the school’s safety plans policy are not functional, exist only on paper .
Tharabollo is one of the many schools that are struggling with little resources to fix the access control gate,they lack school infrastructure like the school fences with holes, buying of metal detectors to mention few.
The random school search for dangerous weapons because the knife that stabbed Thabo got easy way to enter the school premises.
There’s urgent need for all the safety and security community structures to be seen working in collaboration.
Another critical red flag is the lack of the family discipline it is suspected to be a driving force for some of the learners into this gangsters groupings.
NB. The SGB committee’s mandatory roles and responsibility is to establish relationships with local businesses for fundraising to support the school’s” project campaign for Anti drug’s and alcohol addiction amongst some learner’s.
We acknowledge that “No school is responsible for teaching violence behaviour instead, learners violent behaviours is a reflection of the neighborhood they are coming from.
The biggest concern facing the SGB-leadership is that school’s have become easy target for bullying, selling of drug’s . We are calling for the whole community to push back these criminal behavioural pattern.
Given the high incidents involving the learners in the acts of misconduct: the violation of the school learners code of conduct.
The NASGB in the future cannot rule out the calls for harsher penalties that must include immediate suspension with the goal for expulsion for the learners who are bullies and terrorise other innocent fellow learner’s.
