COSAS wants more security Pupils across Gauteng are tired of violent protesters and drug abusers compromising their future Lerato Diale and Peter Ramothwala, The New Age, Johannesburg, 19 May 2016 The Congress of South African Students (COSAS) has called on the country's security agencies to up their game to prevent wanton destruction of schools. The call came at a march in Tshwane against ongoing protests and in the aftermath of 27 schools being damaged by arson in Vuwani, Limpopo, during a demarcation protest. Pupils from various Gauteng schools said they were tired of violent protesters and drug abusers compromising their future. Deputy secretary-general of COSAS Zama Khanyase called on the police to account for what happened in Vuwani. It is bad enough if one school had been burnt, she said. "But 27 schools tells us the police were unable to respond. Where was the (national) intelligence when people were resolving in meetings that they were going to torch schools?" she asked. COSAS has called for intelligence agencies to work with the police to avoid further damage to schools. "We are saying in Orlando, the reaction of pupils vandalising the school when they are unhappy about an issue is because they see what is happening in communities. Elders are teaching them that when you are responding to issues you must respond with burning and vandalising," Khanyase said. She said if schools were a top priority then security at schools must be beefed up. "When schools are being closed down, police are supposed to be stationed there and if they are not equal to the task then the army must do it. It cannot be that during the apartheid era, a government, which we have seen as equal to criminals, were able to protect schools but our government is unable to protect the schools from being burnt down," Khanyase said. "We feel really sorry for Vuwani pupils, we are marching to show them support and we want them back school and of course the drugs that are mostly found at schools must go," one of the pupils, Ursula Mbewe, said. The SAPS refused to comment saying it "needed time to study the contents of the memorandum". Meanwhile. Meanwhile, about R1.4m has been secured to restore schooling in Vuwani. CEO of the National Education Collaboration Trust [NECS] Godwin Khosa said they had secured financial and in-kind contributions within hours of making the call. "We are encouraged by the outcomes of our engagements with community structures and their actions aimed at resuming learning and teaching and protecting schools in Vuwani," he said. He said teacher unions had committed to recover the lost time and churches had volunteered to accommodate pupils. Section 27's Mark Heywood will be running the Comrades Marathon to raise money for Vhafamadi Secondary School. "We may be far away from Vuwani. Our children may be in safer learning environments, but we recognise that protecting every child's right to basic education is everyone's responsibility," he said. Meanwhile, the case of 13 Vuwani suspects charged with arson, public violence and malicious damage to property, including a ward councillor and a teacher, has been postponed to May 24. [email protected] From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/19052016/epaperpdf/3.pdf -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
