Education department’s Mnyamezeli Ndevu criticises Alex police

Police in Alexandra came under fire at a meeting on the formation of an education stakeholder forum for failing to timeously attend to crime scenes.

Gauteng Department of Education’s Johannesburg East District director, Mnyamezeli Ndevu expressed his dismay at the conduct of the police.

On the numerous incidents of burglaries and thefts at schools, Ndevu claimed that on one occasion, it had taken officers from the Alexandra Police Station more than two weeks to take fingerprints at a crime scene. Conspicuous in their absence at the meeting, despite an invitation being extended to them, Ndevu said he would have demanded answers from them as to why it takes so long to attend to a crime scene.

The formation of the Alexandra Education Stakeholder Forum comes in the wake of numerous burglaries and thefts from schools in the township, one of them being Alexandra High School, where computer equipment and tablets worth more than R100 million were stolen.

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Other schools which were also burgled and computer equipment stolen, include KwaBhekilanga Secondary School and Emfundisweni Primary School.

Councillor Tefo Raphadu of Ward 105, who was also a programme director at the meeting, called for an end to the spate of burglaries and thefts at the schools. “Government is spending millions and millions of rand to equip these schools for the betterment of the education of our children. This is a waste of resources as the government must, again, pump out more to buy the same tablets and computer equipment,” he said.

Meanwhile, Alex Police Station spokesperson, Lieutenant Allie Kodisang, when contacted by Alex News, said he was aware of the meeting to form an education stakeholder forum but they, unfortunately, could not attend as they had other pressing business.

On claims that they normally arrive late at crime scenes, especially in recent school burglaries, Kodisang said he was unable to provide comment on a general statement.

“The safety of schools and the community of Alexandra form top priorities for us and we always endeavour to do our best and arrive as early as we could to a crime scene, but all that is dependent on the availability of resources at our disposal at that particular time,” he said.

“If I can be given specific incidents where we have arrived two weeks after the reported commission of crime, then I will be able to comment, as opposed to a general statement which is neither here nor there,” he said.

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