Alex Secondary School pupils presented a memorandum of demands on safety and security at the township’s schools to the Alex Community Policing Forum and Alex police.
The demands were directed at the school guards who they alleged were ineffective against increasing crime in schools. They gave the forum three weeks to respond, failing which they promised to take matters into their own hands for their own safety.
Included in the demands were that pupils entering the school’s premises be searched with decency by the guards, that the guards be proactive when dealing with reported crimes, and for the Congress of South African Students not to be barred from operating in schools.
Nkupula Ralenatla of Realogile Secondary School and president of the greater Alex Learner Representative Council said they wanted proper security in schools. “We demand security that doesn’t only record vehicle entry but deals with real security concerns of children who bring dangerous weapons and knives that they stab others with, to stop fights and all barred substances,” Ralenatla said, adding that despite the daily searches, children still smuggled in phones, cigarettes and drugs. He added that the guards were dysfunctional.
The forum’s chairperson, Benjamin Chisale, said the memorandum was passed on to the relevant provincial departments of Community Safety and Education.
“The demands are genuine and a general community concern which should be addressed as part of the Extended Public Works Programme which includes the guards and patrollers. The students may expect that guards be armed like the police, which may not be possible,” Chisale said.
“A review and revamp of the current arrangement is required to relate the security concerns as new challenges, prompted by the huge electronic and information technology investment [at schools which] may be the cause for the spike in school break-ins.”
The head of the police’s community safety programme Lieutenant Allie Kodisang stressed that schools were gun-free zones. “[Schools] should be regarded as places for learning and safety,” he said and suggested that security cameras be installed at schools. He also called for improved links with the police, continued searches of pupils and talks by police on safety at the institutions.
