NW EDUCATION DISMAYED BY ALLEGED ABDUCTION OF TIRELONG SECONDARY LEARNERS AT BOARDING SCHOOL
The North West Department of Education is dismayed by the alleged abduction of Tirelong Secondary School learners who are accommodated at Boons Mega Farm School.
The latest incident of the alleged abduction of learners happened on Tuesday night, 18 January 2022, around 20:00 wherein a group of drunken mob pretending to be parents arrived in 2 Combis, 1 half truck and a small bakkie.
When the perpetrators arrived at the gate they found the security guards and they refused to produce their identities to indicate whether they were genuine parents of learners or not. A commotion ensued when they could not produce proof of identity and they broke the small gate of the school.
The security succeeded in denying them access to the school. They then blew whistles to give signal to the learners who were inside the hostels.
After the boy learners received the signal, they broke the hostel doors, windows and burglars to force their way out. They moved in numbers forcing and threatening others to leave the school premises.
Once the 162 learners got out of their hostel they were transported by the perpetrators. The learners were transported in five loads and the last group left around 5:00 a.m. in the morning.
The MEC for Education, Mmaphefo Matsemela strongly condemned the incident and indicated that the perpetrators should be brought to book.
“As a department we are very disappointed by such a horrible incident that is continuing to raise its ugly head in our boarding schools. This need to be stopped immediately, the people behind these incidents must be arrested. They removed learners from our schools under the pretext of parents when they are not the real parents. We are in possession of video clips to substantiate that these were not parents.
“What is disturbing us more is that they don’t take the learners to their homes, they leave them on the streets. They expose the lives of our children to extreme danger. We want the police to arrest everyone involved in this unaccepted practice”, said MEC Matsemela.
This is the second incident to happen at the boarding school. The first incident happened at Naauwpoort Mega Farm School and 54 learners were abducted.
A case of malicious damage to property and abduction has been opened with the police.
Only 10 learners stood their ground and refused to go with the mob. They indicated that, they can’t go without the permission of their parents.
The department has arranged counselling for the remaining learners.
For more information please contact:
Elias Malindi
Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 072 1154 855/072 892 8399
