Alex Matlala
LIMPOPO – SECURITY has been a bone of contention in Limpopo schools after a gr. 7 learner at Unity Primary School in Tzaneen went missing from school during lessons recently.
The boy’s disappearance has sent tongues wagging in the education fraternity, with the Congress of the South African Student (Cosas) demanding tighter security in Limpopo schools.
The boy, Sekite Lentsoane (12), was allegedly in a classroom concentrating on a lesson when another teacher called him from a classroom window.
A few minutes later, Sekite was nowhere to be found and the teacher in question could not tell where the poor boy went.
The police are now investigating, Tzaneen cluster police spokesperson, Lt Col Moatshe Ngoepe, confirmed.
However, by the time of going to print, the boy had not been found and no arrests had been made.
The father of the boy, Milton Lentsoane, told CV that his son’s disappearance was tearing the family part. “My boy was in a jovial mood in the morning before going to school. Little did we know that he would go missing,” he said.
“He was a pillar of strength; my present and my future. He was all I ever asked from God. Without him, my life is empty.
“When we send our children to school, we believe that teachers become their second parents.
“But now my son is gone and there is no one, not even the school authority is prepared to tell me where he is,” Lenstoane said.
“My son was a very obedient boy. He would even hurt a fly.
“He would never go anywhere because it was his first year at the school. He knew no one and he had no friends around. He was still trying to make friends at his new school and new settlement since we relocated here from Sekhukhune.
“I have already spoken to everyone we believe knew him but all our efforts came to naught.
“We are pleading with anyone who might know his whereabouts to come forward or speak to the nearest police because this child means everything to us. Without him, we are nothing,” he said.
Lentsoane told CV that the school authority told him that the teacher who asked for his son to leave the classroom had just before this, asked the school principal to be released from school because she was not well.
“The teacher asked to be released from school soon after my son disappeared from the school grounds. This is a straight forward matter, why does it take a leap year for the authorities to bring the perpetrator to book?” he questioned.
Cosas Mopani regional chairperson, Promise Peta, said the child went missing while on the school premises and therefore the education department must shoulder responsibility.
Ngoepe said the police had opened a case of kidnapping.
Education spokesperson, Dr Naledzani Rasila, said the department had launched its own investigation into the disappearance of Sekite.
