Another school set alight in Limpopo

Yet another school was set alight in the troubled village of Tshitale in Limpopo, police confirmed on Tuesday.

This comes just days after a primary school was set alight between Sunday night and Monday morning.

Speaking to The Citizen, Limpopo police spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said one suspect had been arrested and was facing charges of malicious damage to property and arson.

“We are still searching for more suspects. The latest school to be torched is a secondary school,” Mojapelo said.

The most recent arson incidents come in the wake of a protest by residents from two villages who are demanding that their roads be tarred.

The Citizen has also learnt that during the first protest action last week, residents were demanding that the 54km route between Chabane and Soekmekaar – between Elim and Giyani – be tarred.

Due to the protest, pupils in the village have been barred from going to school since the first day of the new academic year last week.

The schools that were torched this week are situated in the Nthabalala village where residents are demanding a road that will link with Soekmekaar and Chabane.

About an hour’s travel away from the Tshitale, more than 20 schools were torched last year during a total shutdown of services in Vuwani, which saw children being prevented from going to school for a month.

Residents in Vuwani have been demanding that a decision by the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) to merge their area with Malamulele and other surrounding villages to form a new municipality be reversed. Community spokesperson Arnold Mulaudzi said they were still busy preparing a new proposal to be sent to the MDB.

A few years ago, residents from Malamulele also protested, demanding a municipality of their own.

Similar protest actions were also experienced in Kuruman, Northern Cape, where pupils were barred from going to school for more than four months.

The demonstrations led to several pupils being forced to repeat their grades.

Most of the protesters who were arrested during last year’s violent protests had their cases struck of the roll on Monday.

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