The Department of Basic Education (DBE) wants the South African Police Service (SAPS) to enlist the services of police reservists to safeguard schools amid rising incidents of violent crime on school premises.
This proposal was announced at the recent meeting of the heads of education department committee (HedCom) held in Kimberley, Northern Cape last month.
The crime situation in schools is so dire that education authorities and management at schools are forced to divert millions of rands in funds meant for infrastructure development and maintenance towards security services to safeguard pupils, teachers and staff against rising crime on school grounds.
The latest crime stats released on Friday revealed that rapes committed in schools have almost doubled from 44 between October and December last year to 79 between March June this year. The number of murders, which occurred in schools, have also increased from six to nine.
On Wednesday, the principal of Zakhele Senior Primary School in KwaBhaca, Eastern Cape was gunned down at the school.
In his presentation, DBE director for safety in schools, Sifiso Ngobese, said they need police reservists to guard school premises because the deployment of security guards remains a challenge due to financial constraints.
Ngobese also said that the Eastern Cape education department had allocated R60-million to a security intervention programme in hot-spot areas.
The Eastern Cape education said the programme has deployed 262 security assistants in 131 schools in Nelson Mandela Bay, Buffalo City and OR Tambo Inland school districts.
Gauteng, which witnessed a surge in violence and crime in schools after incidents of shootings, stabbings and arson allegedly committed by pupils in schools in Eldorado Park, among others – said it has deployed 300 private armed security guards to 75 hotspot schools in the province. The costs associated with the deployment of these armed security guards were not clear at the time of going to print.
One of the schools identified as a hotspot is Sizwe High School in Elandsfontein, Ekurhuleni, where a grade 11 pupil stabbed a grade 9 boy to death in 2020.
Now private armed security guards are stationed at the school during the day and four other guards do the night shift.
In addition to armed guards, the school is resourced with patrollers, and it is partnered with the Bedfordview Police Station for quick response to incidents.
A police patrol van is also stationed at the school.
The Gauteng Department of Education also collaborates with the Department of Community Safety to implement the school patrollers project, which provides security services to no-fee-paying schools.
“The project is funded by the department of community safety and a stipend of R2 700 is given to the patrollers. The GDE has also deployed 5 740 school patrollers,” Ngobese said at the HedCom meeting.
The Northern Cape education department diverted funds towards its school safety project to reduce vandalism, burglaries, violence, gangsterism, drug trafficking and other safety ills. The department, said Ngobese, reported that funds, estimated at R16-million, were sourced from the infrastructure budget.
The project deployed 430 volunteers to 86 high-risk schools in the province. Each school has a minimum of two volunteers.
The Western Cape education department collaborates with the City of Cape Town and established the school resource officer initiative.
The province’s education department said it deployed 90 armed school resource officers to 45 schools in the Cape Town Metro. It said the funding comes from City of Cape Town, the provincial education department, and the provincial treasury. HedCom has also highlighted that more security personnel were needed at schools as violence incidents, robberies and vandalism increase.
KwaZulu-Natal reported chilling murders, which occurred in schools. On July 29, a 46-year-old grade R teacher at Phikiswayo Primary in Ntuzuma was shot dead by two gunmen at the school. On the same day, a matric pupil at Isihlahla Senkosi High School in Nongoma was stabbed to death by other pupils.
DBE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said schools are not equipped to deal with the safety challenges.
“It is not something for the education department to resolve,” adding that even the schools that have armed guards must deal with criminals who attack guards in larger numbers and with more firepower, including AK47s.
“No plans or interventions of the department alone can succeed in eradicating violence. We need collaboration and cooperation with all parties playing their role effectively, that is parents, law enforcement agencies, social agencies, NGOs, the church, and the children themselves,” he said.
