Over 50 schools in Marite in Bushbuckridge were shut down on Thursday, as teachers took to the streets to protest against the high crime rate in the area which is putting their safety at risk at work
Last week a school which was conducting extra classes for matriculants was robbed. They took a teacher’s car, a photocopying machine and valuables belonging to the staff and students.
“We are scared for our lives, criminals enter school premises in daylight holding guns in front of our learners,” said one teacher who chose to remain anonymous.
“Imagine the trauma that these kids go through having to watch their teachers being harassed and robbed at gunpoint.”
The teacher said they are appealing to the government to do something to ensure that teachers and learners are safe at schools.
About a month ago the same thing happened to Halemela High School in the same area where criminals took the food meant for the school feeding scheme and some school equipment.
A primary school in the same area suffered the same fate and learners were left hungry as their feeding scheme food was stolen.
The number of schools that have been targeted in the last term keeps on increasing and teachers are threatening to down tools until the Mpumalanga Department of Education gives them a valid response.
Secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) Marite branch, Brian Ngobeni, says over ten schools have not started teaching since schools reopened on Tuesday.
“Teachers are afraid and they haven’t reported for duty. We want the government to listen to our plight and urgently come up with interventions to ensure safety in our schools,” he said.
The teachers supported by their unions handed over a memorandum of grievances to the Marite education circuit and demanded that it be addressed in the next 24 hours or else they would not go back to work.