Peter Dickson
Within a day of being spirited away overnight, Port Elizabeth’s stolen Sophakama High School turned up all over the place after a wild donkey chase in the city’s Kwazakhele township.
Port Elizabeth community policing board chair Vuyisile Njikelana was on his way to work in Motherwell last Wednesday when he spotted a donkey cart heaped with prefabricated material which was destined for sale in nearby informal settlements. The Mail & Guardian reported last week that residents living opposite the school saw it being stripped and carted away overnight.
Njikelana caught up with the cart on the M17 between the two townships and called the police after cornering the driver. The cart and two donkeys were impounded, and police arrested a 45-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy.
Njikelana later found more parts of the school being used to build shacks. “Some of the people were starting to repaint the material,” he said. “We ordered them to dismantle the shacks and we confiscated the material.”
Njikelana said police, using a loudhailer, “appealed to people in possession of the material to leave it on the side of the street for collection and, to our surprise, this was done”.
More stolen material – now too hot to be handled – was found dumped the next day. Retrieval continued this week after tip-offs that desks and chairs were being used by shebeens.