Sol Plaatje must turn streetlights on for festive season
| by Priscilla Isaacs, MPL – DA Northern Cape Spokesperson for Education |
| Date: 21 November 2019 |
| Release: Immediate |
| The Democratic Alliance in the Northern Cape (DA) will write to the Portfolio Committee on Education, Sport, Arts & Culture to request an urgent briefing from both the Northern Cape Department of Education and the Department of Transport, Safety & Liaison on the implementation of school safety protocols in the province.This comes after one grade 8 learner from the Rosendale Intermediate School in Upington stabbed another grade 8 learner yesterday morning. The victim bled to death on her way to the hospital.Members from the DA will be visiting the families of both learners to see what psychosocial and financial support we can provide.Stabbings and stoning on school premises are becoming far too common and far too usual in the Northern Cape. Schools, which should be places of learning and safety, are fast becoming places of danger and death. We cannot let our classrooms turn into graveyards.The exact circumstances surrounding the incident are still unclear, but it appears that a fight broke out between the two girls earlier this week. This fight escalated to such an extent that it was thought to be for the best that the learners wrote their exams in separate locations. The victim would have written her exam in the deputy principal’s office. We welcome this sensible measure from the school. Unfortunately, the fleeting moment in which the deputy principal turned his back to remove the exam papers from the safe was enough for the stabbing to occur.We are grieving with the school community in this senseless loss of young lives. We convey our sincere condolences and heartfelt sympathies to the parents, family, loved ones, friends, staff, and learners who looked forward to a life with both the victim and the underaged perpetrator.No parent expects that their child will never return home from school. No friend expects that her friend will bleed to death during an exam. No teacher expects that his learner will die on the way to hospital.Similarly, no parent expects that their child will return home from school as the perpetrator of a violent crime where a life was taken. No friend expects that her girl friend will take the life of another girl. No educator expects that their learner will endanger her own future by putting her education on the line through such violence.As a society, we need to do more than just keep the victim’s loved ones in our thoughts and prayers. Our children need more than words. |
| Media Enquiries |
| Priscilla Isaacs, MPLDA Northern Cape Spokesperson for Education082 614 7490 Tharina WhittakerResearcher071 251 5558 |
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