The South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) in the province raises questions over whether sufficient resources have been used to locate the grade two pupil’s whereabouts since her disappearance. The schoolgirl, Kgothatso Molefe, was last seen on her way home from Rampa Primary School in the Tlhabane township near Rustenburg. Sanco Provincial Chairperson, Paul Sebegoe, calls on the Provincial Education Department to beef up the school safety programme and involve the community as a part of their crime prevention strategy. Sanco’s concerns come on the back of North West Education MEC Mmaphefo Matsemela’s urgent plea to have the girl found and returned home.

OFM News previously reported that Basic Education Minister Angelina “Angie” Motshekga maintains that multi-stakeholder collaboration is urgently needed to improve safety in schools. Motshekga was responding to a question posed by the Inkatha Freedom Party’s Liezl Linda van der Merwe on the issue of school safety and violence in schools. When asked if anything was being done to work on the issue, Motshekga says the department is currently being guided by the National School Safety Framework (NNSF) which provides approaches to deal with the issue. The Minister stresses that a key part of the programme is collaboration between various stakeholders including police, civil society organisations and other related institutions, seeing as violence in schools is closely related to violence exhibited in surrounding communities, almost mirroring Sebegoe’s suggestion.

OFM News