Joshua Amupadhi
SEVERAL high schools near Johannesburg are under police guard after 14 pupils died recently in mysterious circumstances.
In one incident a week ago, four men allegedly abducted two high school pupils attending funerals at KwaThema graveyard, 50km east of Johannesburg, shot one dead and wounded the other in the chest. But now pupils who attended the funeral say they do not remember the incident ever taking place.
Police are baffled by the series of murders. Some parents are blaming the murders of their children on “phantom” gangs. This is the explanation given by the distraught parents of standard seven pupil Zakhele Mnisi (18), who was murdered last week.
Six of the 14 murders have taken place in the past two weeks. Police believe they are connected to political violence which began in 1993 between members of the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) and the Pan Africanist Student Organisation (Paso).
But last week’s murder victims were not aligned to either organisation, and Cosas says only two of the 14 victims were its members. Paso has no presence in the area.
Alina Mnisi, mother of Zakhele Mnisi, said last week he went to the funeral of two school mates also shot dead by the mystery gangs. During the proceedings, “some man grabbed him and Walter [Mokwane], and took them to another funeral of a Paso member” about 5km from the KwaThema graveyard and shot him dead. Police informed her of his death that afternoon, but had made no arrests.
Mokwane was shot in the chest and was left for dead. Far East Rand Hospital superintendent Dr Koos Barnard said his condition was satisfactory, but he was “under police guard and nobody is allowed to speak to him”.
Inspector Alex Taueatsoala, who is investigating the case, said Mokwane could be his only witness because other pupils were afraid to come forward.
“It is funny – the two were abducted in broad daylight, in full view of many people, but apparently now no one has seen anything,” he said.
The police have no leads on any of the other cases. According to Detective Desmond Watkinson, it’s usual for information not to reach the police: “If you knew KwaThema, you’d understand. People are too scared to talk. That is the biggest problem we have.”
Watkinson said the latest murder victim was shot on Tuesday night, but he would give no details.
The director of education for the area, Margaret Webber, said school attendance has declined at the seven KwaThema high schools because of the murders. Full-time police and South African National Defence Force soldiers moved into the area in August. Pupils are searched for weapons when they go to school and police patrol the streets when they walk home.
“The situation is so abnormal that some days we do not have classes. Despite the police presence, we haven’t had normal schooling since June,” Webber said.
Last week a commission of inquiry appointed by Gauteng Premier Tokyo Sexwale began public hearings into “the violence which has disrupted schooling and education in KwaThema”. People who have testified so far blamed the conflict on Cosas and Paso.
But the commission’s head, advocate Clive van der Spuy, said he had been unable to trace any Paso members in the area: “There doesn’t seem to be a formal structure of Paso in KwaThema. It has been a word used to describe those alleged to be responsible [for the murders],” but nobody has named individuals, he said.
Cosas branch deputy chair Muzikaifani Nhlangothi said the violence was being fanned by conflict between a branch of South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) and a breakaway faction called Tswelopile yaSitshaba.
Kenny Madalane, from a local civic group, told the commission some people in organisations like Sanco were using school children as “foot soldiers” for their political campaigns.
The commission is also investigating allegations of police corruption after accusations were made that some suspects had not been arrested and in other cases suspects were released without any investigation.