Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
Prostitutes conduct their business on the pavement outside the school walls, kwaito music blares from flats next door competing with the constant hooting of taxis.
A teacher, who has just been mugged outside the school, arrives with her clothing ripped by criminals who fled with her jewellery.
This is St Enda’s Secondary School in Pietersen Street in crime-ridden Hillbrow.
St Enda’s, like many other schools around Hillbrow, has been preyed on by criminals and drug dealers operating in the area.
But the school feels the heat much more than the others because it is situated near infamous brothels and taverns like Europa and Little Rose. Teachers and pupils have been robbed and assaulted countless times.
In 1996, St Enda’s principal was seriously injured when he was shot several times by a gunman who jumped over the school’s fence during a school gathering.
No one was arrested for the shooting. The school does not have security guards.
Last year teachers and pupils asked the Gauteng Department of Education to move the school to a safer place.
“We really have to move from here, it’s so difficult to cope with the place. Two weeks ago, a teacher was mugged on his way to the post office down the road. No one walks around here it’s so dangerous,” explains acting principal Ash Collen. Collen was also mugged outside the school.
The school has also been targetted by drug dealers who sell dagga and mandrax to pupils through the fence. “A few weeks ago we caught a guy trying to smuggle drugs into the school and we called the police,” says school counsellor Dr Barbara Norman.
Norman says many pupils take drugs and the school has a programme to help them and raise awareness about the dangers of drugs. Pupils steal from their homes for drug money.
St Enda’s, which caters for 500 pupils from grade eight to 12, was started by black parents seeking better education for their children. Although situated in Hillbrow, most pupils travel from townships like Soweto and Thembisa.
The school, formerly known as “The Freedom Centre”, first opened its doors in Standard House, Braamfontein, in 1988 and in 1991 moved to Hillbrow.
On Tuesday some morning classes were cancelled because the teachers could not be heard above the noise of the taxis.
Said grade nine student Lebogang Motsoeneng: “It is difficult to learn here. While you try to concentrate on your teacher you hear gunshots in the street. This is like a war place.”