On Now
Weekdays 19:00 - 23:00
OFM Nights Ashmund
NEXT: 23:00 - 23:59 Overnight with Oscar
Listen Live Streams

Local News

FS principal relieved after police found stolen computers

───   13:06 Wed, 01 Mar 2017

FS principal relieved after police found stolen computers | News Article

Bloemfontein - The theft of computer equipment from Mokitlane Primary School in the Free State last month was a blow to staff members trying to keep up with admin and prepare paperwork for pupils.


So when police recovered what they believed to be the stolen items this week, Principal Francis Khoba breathed a sigh of relief.

"It was quite a challenge," Khoba told News24 on Wednesday.

He recalls walking into his no-fee school in Thaba Nchu on February 16 to find that thieves had gained access through windows.

They took a computer from his office, another one from his head of departments office, and a third from the staff room. Also gone were the monitors, a printer, mouse, and internal hard drive.

Without his computer, Khoba had to do many of his tasks manually.

"The computer in the staff room was where the teachers normally did their question papers. They also enter the marks through the computer, which then goes to the main server."

Thankfully, his head of department had a tablet computer and they used that where they could.

It was not the first time the school had suffered at the hands of burglars. About a year ago, someone stole food meant for their pupil feeding scheme.

"They came through the roof to get to the storeroom. They took the whole week’s food," Khoba said in disbelief.

"We had no insurance and the children suffered."

They added security measures to the roof, which managed to stump people who tried to break in again. Then they tried to break through a wall but failed.

The latest break-in confused him because not everything was taken from their school.

"I really don’t understand. I can’t say it was poverty."

Khoba said police told him that only one of the computers was sold.

However, Selosesha police said they recovered all three Acer computers, valued at R15 000, three monitors, one Pixma printer, a mouse, keyboard, and internal hard drive.

Crime intelligence and the K-9 unit recovered the equipment early on Tuesday morning and arrested five men, aged 22 to 34, for possession of suspected stolen property.

Police spokesperson Sergeant Martin Xuma said they received a tip-off about the location of the computers on Monday.

"A toy gun that is suspected to have been used in criminal activities was also confiscated."

Xuma said the group "may" be linked to the business burglary case registered at the school. They would appear in the Thaba Nchu Magistrate’s Court soon.

Khuba was overjoyed after the arrests.

"I am happy because it really shows our police are doing their work."

- News24.com


@ 2024 OFM - All rights reserved Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | We Use Cookies - OFM is a division of Central Media Group (PTY) LTD.