By Thapelo Molefe
About 800 learners in Mangaung have been profiled as potential gang members as the Free State Department of Education intensifies efforts to curb gangsterism in schools, following the discovery of a bullet in a pupil’s school bag.
The department has warned that gangsterism in schools is becoming a serious threat to learning and teaching, with officials describing the issue as a potential constitutional and human rights concern.
Speaking to SABC, Free State Department of Education spokesperson Howard Ndaba said the department had developed a strategy aimed at preventing violence before incidents occur.
“One of the pillars of the strategy is to ensure that we are visible, there’s police visibility, is to link our school with the police station, is to work together with police to ensure that there’s prevention, meaning that before any incident, we prevent it by making sure that police are visible in and around our schools,” Ndaba said.
The department’s intervention comes amid reports of increasing gang activity among learners, with community activists warning that children as young as seven years old are being drawn into gangs.
Community activist Thabo Botsane said several gangs were active in Mangaung communities and that violence often spilled over into and around schools.
“We have Maroma, BTKs, also we have these ones who think they are mature men because they are coming from initiation school, all of those. That is giving us a challenge because we find out sometimes they go and hang outside the school while others are still in the school. So after writing there or after school, the fight starts. And it’s disturbing everything,” he said.
Neighbourhood watch groups have also raised concerns about the role of parents, accusing some of failing to support efforts to address gang-related violence involving their children.
Greater Mangaung Forum chairperson Erican Lubbe said community patrollers frequently deal with incidents involving learners, but cases are often withdrawn shortly afterwards.
“The parents doesn’t come and help us, assist us with this gang violence. We sit with problems when, after three days, the children withdraw their cases against each other. We lock them up. We lock a lot of them up. But the only challenge is that the parents go and fight at the police station. We do our best as patrollers to control the situation,” said Lubbe.
Patroller Lebogang Maketla identified several hotspots where rival groups of learners allegedly gather to fight.
“We’ve got a lot of hotspots where these fights are starting, especially where we are standing. It’s one of the main hotspots. And the other one at Ekailelo and Comtech. There is this main road of Singonzo. It’s where all of Freedom Square and Teflon, they meet to fight,” he said.
The department said it plans to involve the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and stakeholders from initiation schools as part of broader efforts to tackle the problem.
Ndaba said learners returning from initiation schools sometimes contributed to tensions that affected safety at schools.
“I’ve made mention of the initiation school. When they come back, we know that they will be troubled. So that is why we are working together with the stakeholders from that sector of initiation schools to make sure that we curb this. Because, as I indicated, this is also a human rights issue. If there is no safety in our school, learning and teaching will not happen,” he said.
Police have said that they are implementing intelligence-driven gang separation measures and anti-gang education programmes as part of efforts to reduce gang-related violence and improve safety in schools.
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