JOHANNESBURG - Deadly violence is on the rise in South African schools.
In the latest incident, a 17-year-old pupil was stabbed to death by a 16-year-old pupil at Aha-Thuto Secondary School in Orange Farm during a fight on Tuesday.
The family of Sinenhlanhla Khoza is in disbelief.
The 17-year-old was allegedly stabbed to death during a fight with a fellow pupil in the schoolyard of Aha-Thuto secondary in Orange Farm on Tuesday.
Themba Khoza, Sinenhlanhla's uncle said, "Yesterday, our child got injured at school, apparently he got stabbed and was rushed to hospital but upon his arrival, that’s when we got the bad news that he passed on."
"The fight apparently happened during lunchtime and the child lost his life at around half past one,13:30.”
Traditionally, schools were a safe place for pupils and teachers.
Evidently, this is no longer the case, especially at this school which reportedly had several similar incidents in the past.
Paulos Dumako said, "This is not the first time this happens, it’s the third boy dying from this school. There’s only two security guards here and what can they possibly do with so many learners?"
"They should try to beef up security like they did today, and also search the girls as these boys would normally give weapons to the girls."
Teachers should be the first line of communication in any cases of pupil emergencies, but that was allegedly not the case in this incident.
Khoza said, "According to the information that we got, the parents received a call that the child got injured at school but the call was made by one of the learners from school, and that’s when the parents rushed to school and they arrived at the time when the child was being rushed to the hospital, they then followed them."
"When they got to the hospitals, the doctors tried by all means to save the child but unfortunately they couldn’t."
"We haven’t seen or heard anything from the school, we don’t know if they are still going to come or not but so far no one from school came.”
The Gauteng education department has offered pupils and teachers counselling and other support.
Gauteng Education Department spokesperson Steve Mabona said, "As the department, we are regrettably aware about an incident that occurred at Aha -Thuto secondary school in Orange Farms where allegedly a 16-year-old boy learner stabbed a 17-year-old boy learner and this incident is quite alarming that it occurred during lunchtime in the school premises."
"This is quite sad and as the department we are concerned about that, we already dispatched the psychosocial support team to support the school and everyone else who is affected by this, we sincerely convey our condolences to the family and the entire schooling community."
"The MEC will be announcing some initiatives or measures which will introduce over and above what we are doing when coming to school safety on Sunday 21st of May."
The police have confirmed that the accused has been arrested and is expected to appear in court soon.