Download PDFGang and drug violence has become a normal feature of learner life in Eldorado Park schools. Almost every week there are shootings at school related to gang and / or drug violence. Innocent victims pay the price of these activities, usually with their lives.
In recent weeks there have been several shootings at the local high schools in the township, including Lancea Vale, Willow Crescent, Klipspruit High, Eldorado Park Secondary, and Kliptown High.
Most of the abovementioned schools are located near primary schools and the innocent pupils attending at these primary schools are always in danger of being shot or injured during these traumatic exchanges of fire.
Some of the shootings are gang-related while others even drug-related. In some instances, gang or drug members go directly into the school yard very well-armed and just start shooting randomly from the entrance injuring school patrollers or security and then go straight to classroom to find their target. The violent young men will shoot the target or if not the target is not found the perpetrators usually attack any person directly linked to the target say a friend, brother or sister.
In most drug-related incidents, drug dealers participate in turf wars whereby for example, a drug dealer from Westbury, a different township 20 kilometres away from Eldorado Park, wants to come and deal or sell drugs in Eldorado Park. The Eldos drug lords will retaliate which will trigger a drug-related escalation of violence.
When a drug seller, many of them youth, wants to get out of the drug trafficking and selling, to go back to school to finish their studies, they face fire and will get attacked at school where they know the ex-seller will be vulnerable.
During the most recent shooting at Willow Crescent which left learners injured, parents were also affected just like their children attending at the school.
One parent, Mara Foster, expression her concerns about the growing and yet neglected violence by government, said, “When the first shooting started at Willows, my daughter called me and she was very hysterical and traumatised, I had to leave work and fetch her immediately. I was also worried with fear and asked a colleague friend to accompany me as I did not know what to expect when I arrived at school.”
“I found the receptionist and from desk team just sitting in the office like nothing [was] happening. When my daughter saw me, she just burst into tears, and I gave her a big hug. I immediately took her for trauma counselling,” Mara added, saying that when she asked the school office why they were so relaxed, they responded by saying that they had already called the Eldorado Park SAPS and that the police were on their way. The police allegedly had to attend another incident at Lancea Vale Secondary School.
Another parent an elderly Helen Makene said her granddaughter who also attends at Willow Crescent was also traumatised. The granddaughter’s friend was caught by a stray bullet and was rushed to immediately hospital. Fortunately, none of her major organs were injured. Six other people including three pupils and three staff members, were injured. Two of the victims succumbed to their injuries and died on the spot.
At the Lacea Vale school, on the same day as the Willow Crescent shootings, there were shootings also. Luckily, at Lacea Vale no one was seriously hurt, but the learners and staff were severely traumatised following the events.
Police were on the scene and one police official said, “We have been trying to curb violence for years. But it has escalated from burglaries, shootings [between gang members] to shootings even on passersby and school pupils.”
“We are short-staffed, under-weaponed, even though the crime wardens are there, they are not armed with weapons to protect themselves or the residents,” said ‘Javilias’ of Eldorado Park, a resident in the area.
Crime wardens were placed at schools to search learners for any weapons in the morning and during school hours. Since the wardens were placed at schools there have not been any recent shootings. The community hopes that this can continue to be the case.
Teenage (15) pupil who preferred to be kept anonymous, said, “If pupils or young people mind their business and just [act as] the teenagers [they are] and not get involved in things that would hurt them, no one will get hurt.”
The then Police Minister Bheki Cele has been to Eldorado Park on a number of occasions but only left the community with a number of promises that have never been fulfilled to this day. It remains to be seen if the current Minister of Police, Mr Senzo Mchunu, will have any special focus on eradicating gangsterism in community and especially gang and drug-related violence in schools. Schools should be reserved for learning, that purpose should be safeguarded at all costs.
If the so-called Government of National Unity indeed words for the people as it purports to be, the gangsterism in these parts of Joburg offer an opportunity to deliver much-needed service to communities.
This article is an opinion piece submitted on 03 September 2024. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of Karibu! Online or Khanya College. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
