Durban - Matrics at a troubled eThekwini school had to write their final exam under police guard amid threats of arson.
The local councillor, members of the community police forum (CPF) and metro police kept watch on Friday at the Chief Luthayi High School in Hammarsdale, after a group of feuding matric pupils had threatened to set the school and certain teachers’ cars on fire.
The school was in the grip of gangsterism and a week earlier Grade 9 pupils who had completed their exams went on a rampage, destroying furniture and breaking windows, said principal Sibusiso Madonsela.
The Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal announced at the weekend it would commission a study to address security concerns at schools across the province.
The study would be comprehensive and could take researchers between six and 12 months to complete, said department head Dr Enoch Nzama, at a three-day strategic planning programme.
A Daily News team visited the school on Friday just after the pupils had written their English exam and found broken desks, chairs and windows.
Meanwhile, pupils strolled the streets of Hammarsdale and took turns to write good luck messages on each other’s shirts or to cut up their stockings and skirts.
Madonsela said teachers were so scared some had walked to school, fearing their cars would be targeted, while others did not show up at all on Friday.
“I learned about the threats at school and then people from the community also warned me to be careful,” he said.
“They were saying that they were to lock us in the school and vandalise everything, so because of what happened to the Grade 9s when we underestimated them, I made sure that the CPF was aware. They always help us when we call, they are always available,” he said.
The Daily News spoke to a group of matric pupils who were writing on their school shirts after the exam, celebrating the end of their high school days.
They said the school was failing to deal with the unruly pupils and suggested the principal was scared of pupils who were members of gangs and factions.
“The principal does not deal with the people who are fighting, he knows who they are but he is scared,” said one pupil.
Another pupil said gangs were battling for power and control.
“They want to have power at the school and be feared,” said the pupil. “If one of them is beaten, they all go to that person and they want to bully that person. They come with knives and bush knives to school, it is scary,” he said.
Another pupil was sympathetic towards the teachers and said they needed support.
“The school needs to strengthen security and check if the teachers are okay, because many of them are scared and they have been trying hard to do their job. When a pupil was stabbed, the police came, but then nothing happened. The matter was finished,” she said.
Confirmation and further details on the stabbing were not immediately available.
Councillor Nkosiphendule Dlamini, deputy chairman of the safety and security committee at the eThekwini Municipality, said drastic measures should be put in place to protect schools.
“This is public property. The teachers don’t own it and the learners do not own it, it is the school for the community, so we must protect it,” he said.
“We will not allow people to do as they like here because they can threaten people. We will not allow that,” he said.
Dlamini berated the behaviour of the pupils and called on parents to play a more active role in their childrens’ schooling.
Department spokesman Muzi Mahlambi said they were aware that teachers had been threatened and intimidated at the school. He said the police were called in as a precaution.
No cars or school infrastructure were damaged on Friday, he said.
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