Members of the education portfolio committee in Bhisho want provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Liziwe Ntshinga to investigate cases of stock theft in the Mount Fletcher and Qumbu areas which have resulted in the deaths of two pupils.
MPL Michael Peter, who was leading the delegation that visited the area last week, said hardest hit were Kuyasa Senior Secondary School pupils in Ngxaxa village in the Qumbu administrative area “who get caught in the crossfire” when there are fights among villagers over stock theft every time they attend revision camps in neighbouring villages.
“We have to bring this to the attention of the provincial commissioner to investigate. This violence has claimed two lives already from Kuyasa SS. We want the Katkop police station commander to act and curb further violence,” said Peter.
The committee was on a week-long oversight visit to schools in the Joe Gqabi district as part of the state of readiness for the 2019 school year.
Another concern reported to members was overcrowding at Sidinane Senior Secondary in Mount Fletcher.
Sidinane school governing body chair Bongani Tshoba said the school was a feeder school for at least eight Mount Fletcher villages, but despite the overcrowded classes, the school managed to get a matric pass rate of 72%, 84% and 77% over the past three years.
“Because of these good matric results, the school attracts a lot of pupils. We have classrooms which have more than 70 pupils per session, and that is unheard of. We have asked the committee to ask the department to turn this school into a boarding school to address a whole range of other issues, including lack of scholar transport,” said Tshoba.
The school has 1,491 registered pupils from Grade 6 to 12. Peter said more than 400 pupils had to walk long distances to and from school because there was no scholar transport.
“We can make do with buses, but as this community our view is that we deserve a boarding school so that our children can be protected against the violence over stock theft and walking long distances to school once and for all.”
Peter said: “Our recommendations will be forwarded to the house [legislature] for discussion and a way forward.
“It is important that we take serious decisions on how to help curb the violence caused by stock theft in these villages.”..