Pupils flee stick-wielding  youth at high school  

A high school pupil sustained a deep gash on his forehead while trying to jump out of a classroom to escape a knobkerrie-wielding mob in Mpindweni village outside Mthatha.

This was after a group of youths claiming to be from Mpindweni stormed Mpindweni Senior Secondary School where they forced pupils from the neighbouring Gxididi administrative area out of classroom.

The Daily Dispatch has previously reported that Gxididi villagers had turned against each other over the location of a R2,5-million community hall that Mthatha city bosses have promised to build.

Initially, Mpindweni and Gxididi fell under the same ward and it had been agreed that the hall would be built on a piece of land separating the two villages.

However when the former was placed under a different ward, Gxididi residents identified an alternative site central to all the six villages making up the area.

Mpindweni principal Yandile Phohlwana claimed around 50 youths armed with knobkerries had invaded the school around 8.30am just as Grade 12 pupils were preparing to write their maths paper as part of the September trial exams.

He said they claimed they were from Mpindweni village and wanted children from Gxididi out of their schools.

"I tried to reason with them but they said Gxididi people also don't allow them to pass through Gxididi.Hence they did not want children from there at the school."

He said the mob had pelted some of the pupils from Gxididi with stones forcing them to flee the school towards their homes.

"We tried calling the police but they did not arrive."

When the Daily Dispatch visited the school, angry pupils were standing guard at the gates.

The children from Gxididi returned to school around 11am accompanied by some elderly parents and youths, themselves armed with sticks.

But they accused ANC MP Zukile Luyenge of instigating the attacks against their children. The Gxididi-born Luyenge however denied this when approached by the Dispatch saying it was people from Mpindweni and Ngwevana, the latter his birth village which is one of the six villages making up Gxididi.