Despite the Western Cape Government subsidising holiday security at 436 schools over the June/July holidays, our schools have unfortunately once again been targeted by criminals during this period.

Incidents of burglary and vandalism were reported by 38 schools during the holidays, mainly concentrated in the metro education districts. Thankfully only one of the incidents was considered major.

Items stolen or damaged ranged from water piping to windows, cables to computers, fencing to fire safety equipment, stationery to security gates, and numerous other items. The cost of replacing and repairing these is still being calculated, and will divert funding away from the essential task of educating our learners.

While the number of schools reporting incidents is a decrease from the 42 schools affected in the same holiday period in 2022, the number of incidents remains unacceptably high, and negatively affects our children’s education.

Recently, the theft of water pipes at Crystal High School resulted in a large portion of the school being flooded, forcing the school to close temporarily.  An entire group of learners had their teaching and learning time disrupted, despite us being able to accommodate them at another school while the water was drained.

At a time when we are providing extra classes to get our children #BackOnTrack, we simply cannot afford to have normal teaching and learning time disrupted by criminals targeting school property.

Someone, somewhere, knows who the perpetrators of these crimes are.

Someone, somewhere, will be offered the goods stolen from our schools.

We appeal to the public to report any details about these crimes, not matter how small, to the South African Police Services (SAPS) immediately, so we can shut down the criminal economy that is preying on our schools.