POLOKWANE – The stabbing to death of a 15-year-old boy by a 16-year-old boy at the Flora Park dam last Friday lead to the arrests of two Nigerian nationals suspected of being kingpin drug dealers.
According to youngsters who said they witnessed the stabbing of Mpho Ramoba, who was a learner at Happy Day Combined School, an argument between him and a 16-year-old learner from Generaal Piet Joubert School over a glove quickly escalated into violence. The 16-year-old allegedly stabbed Ramoba in the chest. Friends of each learner also became involved and a huge gang-like fight broke out. The 16-year-old boy sustained several stab wounds during the melee. Polokwane police spokesperson, Capt Ntobeng Phala said the boy was arrested for murder. His injuries were were treated and he was later released into the police’s custody whereafter he was taken to a place of safety. The 16-year-old suspect appeared before the Polokwane magistrate’s court on Monday and he was due to appear again at the time of going to print.
While the police were at the Flora Park dam after responding to this incident, they also did a stop-and-search exercise, which netted two more arrests of teenagers for allegedly stealing cell phones, Phala said.
On Tuesday the police did a routine check on the park at the Flora Park dam and caught three alleged drug users, aged between 18 and 21 years, reportedly in the act of sniffing lines of cocaine from one of their iPads, Phala said. He said information from these three suspects led the police to a house in Ster Park where the police arrested two Nigerian nationals, aged 31 and 37 years old, and a 41-year-old woman from KwaZulu Natal after discovering some 60 packets of different drugs including cocaine and tik, as well as a large amount of cash in the house. All six suspects were due to appear before the Polokwane magistrate’s court shortly.
Phala said according to information gained during a preliminary investigation into the stabbing incident, the learners were gathered at the Flora Park dam for reasons of their own, which were unknown, prior to attending a function that was to be held at Northern Academy, across the road from the dam.
Northern Academy principal, Sonja du Plessis, conveyed the school’s deepest condolences to the family of the murdered boy. She said the park at the Flora Park dam was an evil place where learners from many schools engaged in various activities including alcohol and drug abuse, sex and gangsterism. “The school management has contacted the municipality on numerous occasions to assist in this regard as the park is their responsibility, but nothing has been done to resolve the matter. Hopefully, now, after a learner has lost his life, something will be done,” Du Plessis said.
She said learners from Northern Academy had also been the victims of robberies in the park. “we urgently plead with the police to be more visible there in the afternoons and over weekend.”
Generaal Piet Joubert School deputy principal Gerhard de Beer, said even though the incident occurred outside of school hours it had still been reported to the department of education. “We are trying our best to combat violence at school and are looking into prevention strategies and programmes,” he said.
The Happy Day Combined School principal did not wish to comment about the matter, saying that the incident was under investigation, according to her personal assistant who only wished to identify herself as “Rebecca”.
Education spokesperson Phuti Seloba stressed that the incident had occurred outside of school hours and not at a school function. Both he and education MEC Dikeledi Magadzi extended their condolences, with Magadzi expressing shock over the incident. Seloba said young people being involved in violent incidents was becoming more common and was an enormous concern.
Phala confirmed that the police were aware of the illegal activities going on at the Flora Park dam. He said this was not the first incident in which gangs had clashed, however, previous incidents had not involved weapons other than fists. Reports had also been received, he said, of learners being threatened, ambushed and beaten up for their belongings. “Bullying is becoming more of a problem and should be addressed at all schools,” he said. He added that the police were considering the resurrection of the adopt-a-cop initiative to build and strengthen the relationship between children and the police. “Children must know that we are there for them and there is no matter too small or too big that can be handled by a police officer,” he said.
