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R/£ Criminals target children
Pupils are being robbed at gunpointApril 29, 2006 Edition 2
Noor-Jehan Yoro Badat, Sheree Russouw and Fiona Gounden
Schoolchildren are becoming "soft targets" for criminals - and education officials predict that more pupils are to fall victim as gangs prey on their vulnerability.
This follows at least two separate incidents this week where armed gangs held up pupils from a KwaZulu-Natal school and a Gauteng school. In a third incident, robbers attacked a group of KwaZulu-Natal schoolboys traveling to Johannesburg by train - and came back twice to take more of their possessions.
In Johannesburg on Monday, three armed robbers brazenly walked into Parktown Boys High School, amicably greeted its Grade 11 class - and then shoved a gun against teacher Shelley Lennox's head. After ordering her class to hand over their cellphones, wallets and watches, the trio fled on foot.
On Wednesday five robbers armed with rifles, stormed into Pinewood Primary School in Chatsworth, Durban. They then went into five classes, robbing the principal and teachers of their valuables, in full view of their pupils.
The robbers had cut through a wire fence to gain entry. A brave teacher shoved one of the robbers out of her classroom to protect her students. Her pupils helped her to hold a desk against the door, to keep the criminals out.
A teacher at the school, who refused to be named said: "It was terrible. We were having a normal lesson and these thugs just burst in. I was so scared that my pupils were going to be harmed."
"As teachers, we are responsible for the safety of our children, whose parents know they are safe. When criminals come into our classrooms and terrorise us, then we as teachers are fearful. Even worse, the students become traumatised."
Local resident Vasie Govender, whose son is at Pinewood School, said: "My son was in the class when these criminals stormed in. He was terrified as they demanded money from his teacher. My son loved going to school but now he says that he's so scared to go back on Tuesday."
On Wednesday night, another armed gang struck a train transporting 200 pupils from Glenwood High School, Durban High School and Northwood High School, on their way to Johannesburg for a sports tour this weekend.
The teenage pupils had been set to play rugby and hockey against pupils of King Edward VII High School (KES) and Jeppe Boys High School.
Superintendent Danelia Veldhuizen, police spokesperson for Durban South, said that approximately four men, one armed with a firearm, another with scissors and others with knives robbed a compartment carrying the Northwood pupils after the train had stopped at Dassenhoek station in Mariannhill outside Durban.
"While it was stationary, they (the robbers) got on the train and entered the compartment where these children were in. No one was injured but the pupils were really traumatised. I've never heard of something like this before, where schoolchildren are involved."
The robbers walked off with MP3 players, walkmans, cellphones, money and sports equipment. An official, who did not want to be named, said the latest incidents indicated that children are becoming "soft targets".
"We'll see more of these crimes against schoolchildren now because the other criminals will see how easy it is. They'll see how vulnerable children are and this will spread"
"More and more schools are seen as soft targets. At some stage, the state is going to have to start taking this very seriously. As schools, we get nothing from the state towards security and it is going to have to seriously consider supporting us towards ensuring our learners are safe," said KES headmaster Mike Fennell
Spoornet spokesperson Molatwane Likhethe said this was a "random" incident, as its long-distance passenger trains were the "safest by far".
He said the ongoing strike by security guards had affected the safety of its trains.
"We usually have guards on our trains, but the current strike by security guards has also affected us To ensure the safety of passengers, we have intensified our security at all the strategic points, including those where the incident occurred."
But Divesh Govender (13), a member of Northwood High's under-14 rugby team, vowed that he would never travel by train again.
The teenager was robbed of his cellphone, some money and his entire rugby kit.
"We were chatting and laughing in our compartment when the robbers struck. We heard banging on the door - we thought it was the matrics playing jokes on us. All of a sudden, these guys burst into our compartment and pointed a gun at us and wanted all our stuff. We had to give it to them.
"When they left we locked the door and all jumped on top of the bunk. But they came back. They banged on the windows outside the train and said: 'Open up or we'll kill you' … it was very scary."
His mother, Marla, received a phone call from her traumatised son at 4.30am on Thursday. "He was very tense. He told me they had pulled out a knife on him and he had tried to put his cellphone in his pocket but they saw him do it and took it from him.
"He told me he had frozen up - that he had pins and needles all over his body and couldn't understand why this was happening to him," she said.
She and her husband immediately drove to Johannesburg. Divesh was "very reserved and down", she said. "It's just sad at his age that he sees this kind of thing … We as parents take care of our children …but the one time you are not there to protect them, something like this happens."
Upon hearing about the train robbery, the parents of the Durban pupils gave the tour the go-ahead and they are due to play their annual rugby game today. For those who were robbed of their kit, the parents of KES pupils raised more than R3 000.
"We gave it to the boys who had lost their spending money for their weekend … we also gave them kit from our spare stocks," said Fennell.
No arrests have been made in any of the incidents.
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