Rehana Rossouw
A teachers’ strike in protest against the withdrawal of security at Excelsior Senior Secondary School in Belhar, Cape Town, where schooling has been severely disrupted by gangsterism, ended on Monday when the education department arranged for police to protect the
“We were told the police are here as a temporary measure, so we have suspended our strike temporarily,” said Excelsior principal, Graham Jennecker. “We are still waiting for a long-term solution to our problem.”
Western Cape Education Department Director Dr Francois Knoetze said at least 52 schools in Cape Town have been identified as “high risk” institutions where gang activity disrupted schooling and vandalism and theft was rife.
He said a call by teachers to send in the army to protect schools was deemed “unrealistic” at a meeting between a top-level police delegation and education officials last week.
“The police told us the army was already included in their community safety plan and they would call them if they were needed,” Knoetze said. “We agreed that police would maintain a high visibility in high-risk areas.”
Knoetze acknowledged that the police would not be able to maintain their presence at schools, but said a long- term solution to the problem was bedevilled by a lack of funds for security.
The department had budgeted R15-million for security personnel and R5-million for repairs, which was far from sufficient to solve the problems in Cape schools.
“I offered to donate the R15-million to the police so that they could use it for community-policing training to protect the schools, but they said this was unrealistic as the people would become targets of the gangsters,” Knoetze said.
A police spokesman said schools were being visited by policemen between 8am and 2pm every day, but a shortage of manpower would probably see patrols reduced soon.