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Renaissance Secondary School's Mr Mashudu Sithole inpects the damage to the strong-room wall.

Thieves attack guard and rob school

 

A school is seen within every community as a place where children acquire the building blocks for their future, but when criminals armed with a fire-arm and knives brazenly threaten the security officer and rob the school of its moveable property, this becomes just another chapter of the sad story that is modern-day society.

“They didn't just rob the school, but the pupils' future,” said a resident, Ms Kedibone Maboya. “It is unimaginable that sane persons could come together and plan to forcefully enter the school and walk away with items that form part of educational and teaching resources. That's total madness.”

As mother of three school-going children, Maboya was responding to a robbery that occurred at Renaissance Secondary School in Musina last Wednesday at around 23:00. The 28-year-old security officer stationed at the school was allegedly busy patrolling when two men appeared from behind him.

“From what we learned, two men pointed a fire-arm at him and demanded the keys to the main staff offices in the administration block, but he responded that he didn't keep the keys,” said the school's principal, Mr Mashudu Sithole. “He tried to fight them and run away, but four more men reportedly appeared, wielding knives, and manhandled him.”

The men tied the security officer's hands and dragged him towards the staff offices, where they started breaking down the doors. In a short time, they gained admittance to the staff rooms and ransacked all the drawers and cupboards.

“They broke the ceiling in order to get into the strong room, but the rock roofing prevented their entry,” Sithole said. “So, they drilled a hole in the wall into the strong room, ransacked it and stole two laptops, two spotlights and a small safe. They had also caused much damage to the doors when they used a strong object to open them forcefully.”

In the meantime, they had reportedly drugged the security officer. He only regained consciousness at around 04:00 and realised that he was inside one of the offices of the administration block. His two mobile phones and a wallet containing about R450 were also missing.

“As a school, we are really feeling sad after the theft of the two laptops, which had life sciences teaching resources on them, and other useful items that were all aimed at bettering the lives of our children here at this school,” Sithole said. “We pray that community members assist with relevant information and do not buy those stolen items.”

The Limpopo police's spokesperson, Col Moatshe Ngoepe, confirmed the incident and added that the police's investigations were continuing. He said that no arrests had been effected at that stage.

 

One of the doors that were damaged during the robbery at Renaissance Secondary School in Musina.

Renaissance Secondary School's Mr Mashudu Sithole says that the school is hurting after the robbery.

 

Date:12 November 2018

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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