Safety at schools is again under the spotlight with the murder of a parent who was trying to foil a hijacking outside his son’s school, Faranani Primary, in Protea Glen, Soweto on Wednesday.
The brave father was shot outside the gates of Faranani by unknown suspects who wanted to hijacking a scholar transport.
This comes exactly a month after 19-year-old pupil Neo Mabaso died in hospital from injuries he sustained during a brawl outside Sir Pierre van Ryneveld High School in Kempton Park, east of Johannesburg.
These are just two cases that happened outside the school gates around Gauteng in a month.
The latest crime stats show an increase in the number of murders committed at institutions of learning, from seven in the last quarter to 19 from April 1 to June 30 2022, with 15 killings committed inside the school premises.
Three of the murders happened at tertiary institutions and one at a creche.
In the same period from April to June 2022, 58 cases of rape were reported to have occurred at schools, and five at schools for children with special needs.
Out of 67 rapes that were reported to have happened at institutions of learning, a majority of them happened at schools, eight at tertiary institutions, and one at a creche.
The portfolio committee on basic education asked Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga in September what steps her department was taking to prevent such crimes.
In a reply to a written question from DA’s Desiree van der Walt, Motshekga said the national school safety framework (NSSF) remains the department’s primary strategic response to school violence.
“It is a comprehensive approach that coordinates and consolidates all school safety interventions in the sector,” said Motshekga.
“The NSSF is based on a social ecological systems model which locates the school within its broader community. It relies on collaboration and partnerships for a more coordinated approach to responding to school violence.
“The NSSF provides the framework within which all schools have active school safety committees and school safety plans, based on an audit of needs, in place and [which] are reviewed frequently,”
She said the NSSF guides how the school’s perimeter is fenced and guards and surveillance are in place and managed.
“Schools have systems in place to report violent incidences and criminal behaviour at local police stations, to district and provincial office bearers.
“Schools have established relationships with their inter-governmental counterparts: departments of social development; health and justice, to progressively ensure services such as counselling services, medical examinations and access to justice are effective and in the best interest of the child.”
She said for the 2022/2023 financial year, her department was conducting a monitoring and support exercise in all the 75 districts on the implementation of the NSSF.
“This includes the functionality of school safety committees. Provinces and districts have committed to rolling out training to all schools to ensure that all school safety committees are trained, including all school personnel [educators and support staff].”
Gauteng’s new MEC of education Matome Chiloane has asked for increased police visibility at schools following the shooting at Faranani.
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