Teens sow FEAR

A sizeable teen gang with a penchant for danger and designer brands is seemingly sowing fear in the hearts of some Westenburg residents and their kids. A mother’s expression of anxiety about her 17-year-old son’s safety was deafened by a milling crowd converging at the gates of a school last Thursday afternoon to deal with boys reportedly brandishing knives and harbouring pangas on the premises.
Out of fear of reprisal the woman spoke to Polokwane Observer on condition of anonymity, metres away from a restless mass gathering on the side walk that afternoon as passers-by armed with sticks awaited the arrival of gang members seemingly expected to gather to attack her son.
At this stage the details of the school, the victim, the gang and those suspected of an attack during which the boy was stabbed in the hand with a kitchen knife on a street corner in the neighbourhood late the previous Friday afternoon, are being withheld.
In the company of his mother the boy said he was living in fear of losing his life at the hands of gang members who have warned that they would be returning to deal with him. Already he had been afraid of going to school and of attending a public event outside town that following evening, he indicated.
According to him he and two friends had been accosted by an estimated 12 Sepedi-speaking members of a gang of kids from surrounding neighbourhoods at a nearby intersection, first assaulting the three of them before he got stabbed in the hand by one of the assailants. The fact that he had fought back seemingly posed to have provoked the knife attack, it was learnt. The boy, who remarked that he was stabbed with a kitchen knife, indicated that he ran home thereafter.
An eye witness, who overheard the conversation outside the school yard in the passing last Thursday afternoon, stopped to point out that the gangsters had attacked the boy and his friends that afternoon, adding that one of the attackers had a knife. According to information the gang was estimated to be 20-strong, its members being around 17 or 18 years old, generally preferring brand labels and consisting of boys who resided in outlying suburbs.
The mother continued the narration by saying that her son had arrived home from school last Monday after fleeing during first break upon being informed that the gang would return to “sort him out”, which his mother explained was understood as them intending to kill him. Later one of his peers informed him that he did well by running home, as he had witnessed a panga being displayed on the school premises that day.
In addition the boy said he had been warned by one of the gangsters at the entrance to an ablution facility at the school about pangas being hidden in the ceiling the previous day. According to the mother they were informed about one of the gang members also intending to attack her son with a spade, which she reckoned was normally being used for chores on the school premises, last Wednesday.
After taking her son to the clinic last Tuesday the mother accompanied him to the Westenburg Police Station without making a case in order for them to rather enter into a mediated process in the presence of the parents of the one suspect, she explained. Her son was taken to the house but the suspect was not in.
In the meantime they have received the news that the 18-year-old knife-wielding attacker, affiliated to a school in an adjacent neighbourhood, had put out a warning the entire week about planning to deal with her son and his friends, who either attended school elsewhere or had already matriculated.
She said she had asked the Police to patrol the area last Thursday by advising them of the warning about premeditated murder, but to no avail. That afternoon she showed up at school with a terrible anxiety over her child’s death being planned to be effected that day, but the gang members failed to show up, the mother emphasised.
The mother of two said she had experienced a sense of fear of something happening to her child which she couldn’t describe to anyone, specifically every time the phone rang. “What would I do without him? He is my entire existence.” Her son conceded that the gangsters were sowing fear in the hearts of the community, which was being troubled by them. According to him he was afraid of getting killed. His mother referred to her son having been traumatised, saying that he was being stressed out due to the circumstances at school.
In a follow-up interview the mother expressed the belief that for the time being her son was safe at school and the hope that it was the end of the ordeal. She continued to reiterate the need for security on the premises, as happened at schools in other suburbs, adding that she laid a charge at the school. It was learnt that the matter had subsequently been addressed by the school principal, particularly during a visit by the Police on Monday.
A parent of the school informed Polokwane Observer that they were very concerned about the status quo around the safety of their children. If the matter received publicity they could use it to mobilise the community to ensure security got enforced at the facility, he said.
On Tuesday the school principal referred Polokwane Observer to the Department of Education when approached for comment.
Departmental comment
Response by Department of Education spokesperson Sam Makhondo is quoted verbatim. “It’s a concern and a very serious concern that there are allegations of gangs operating at the school. We have alerted our school safety unit to investigate the matter, working with the Police. We have a standing partnership with the South African Police Service (SAPS) who work with us to conduct random searches and seizure(s) for (of) dangerous weapons, especially in schools around Polokwane. So we will work with them as we deal with this case as we have done in other areas.
We expect learners to carry in their school bags learner material like textbooks and stationery and not dangerous weapons which will harm other learners in (the) school. We also urge parents to work with the department to check the contents (of) their children’s school bags from time to time, because obviously the school does not supply dangerous weapons and as such these things come from homes and make their way into our schools, posing danger to other people at (the) school.
A school is a place of teaching and learning and not a war zone and that’s why we prohibit the carrying of dangerous weapons and parents must work with the department in ensuring that such things do not find themselves in (onto) school premises. Let parents make it their mission to search their children’s school bags in the morning and in the afternoon when learners return from school and in that way they will understand why schools prohibit such weapons (in schools).”

Story: YOLANDE NEL
>>observer.yolande@gmail.com