38 schools burgled during winter school holidays
|Published
38 schools have been burgled in the Western Cape. file image
Cape Town - The Western Cape Education Department confirmed that 38 schools were burgled during the June school holidays despite having security present. They indicated that this is less than incidents a year ago.
For safety reasons they are not naming the schools.
Items stolen from these schools include water pipes, cables, computers, windows, security grates, equipment, stationery, fencing and fire safety equipment.
Kerry Mauchline, spokesperson to Minister David Maynier, said despite the Western Cape Government subsidising holiday security at 436 schools over the June/July holidays, criminals targeted the premises.
“Incidents of burglary and vandalism were reported by 38 schools during the holidays, mainly concentrated in the metro education districts. Thankfully only one of the incidents was considered major,” she said.
“The cost of replacing and repairing these is still being calculated, and will divert funding away from the essential task of educating our learners.”
Mauchline explained the number of schools reporting incidents is a decrease from the 42 affected in the same holiday period in 2022.
“The number of incidents remains unacceptably high, and negatively affects our children’s education,” she added.
The WCED reported that the recent theft of water pipes at Crystal High School resulted in a large portion of the school being flooded, forcing it to close temporarily.
“An entire group of learners had their teaching and learning time disrupted, despite us being able to accommodate them at another school while the water was drained,” she stated.
“At a time when we are providing extra classes to get our children #BackOnTrack, we simply cannot afford to have normal teaching and learning time disrupted by criminals targeting school property.”
Mauchline appealed to the public to point out the perpetrators: “Someone, somewhere, knows who the perpetrators of these crimes are “Someone, somewhere, will be offered the goods stolen from our schools.
“We appeal to the public to report any details about these crimes, no matter how small, to the South African Police Services immediately, so we can shut down the criminal economy that is preying on our schools.”