Gangs terrorise Moshupa Senior School
Sharon Mathala | Friday September 23, 2016 17:20
Late last year, government took the initiative to sponsor the notorious gang members to a rehabilitation trip to the Okavango were each were to pocket close to P700. According to the Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, Thapelo Olopeng, this was government’s contribution of rehabilitating the gang members so they could “refocus”.
The success of this initiative was put to a test this past week at Moshupa Senior Secondary School. When the Mmegi team visited the school this week, most Moshupa senior school students had not turned up for class following a bloody fight amongst gang members Monday morning.
After a series of interviews Mmegi established that after a successful prize giving ceremony on Friday, things turned bloody and ugly on Monday just before the school started their normal activities.
“It was just before break time. We heard shouts and cries at the back side of the school. When we rushed there we found a boy lying in a pool of blood breathing heavily,” one of the teachers who preferred anonymity said.
“The gangs are back in this school. It has been happening for quite sometime but we have never seen anything like this. Even the teachers are scared themselves especially the female teachers,” the teacher continued.
“It is Thamaga versus Moshupa. I know this because some of them tell us; they say the Thamaga based students are of the view that this school belongs to them whilst the Moshupa kids also believe that this is their school. We have a number of cases of fights amongst these gangs and the leadership knows about this,” said the source.
Mmegi also established that the school leadership made the teachers sign a non-disclosure form. In the form they are instructed not to speak for and or against the gangs that have now clouded the school.
One student said she witnessed the bloody ordeal happen right in front of her eyes. “I heard one of them call Tloks to the side. I sort of had a sixth sense so I walked slowly and when I turned, Tloks was now surrounded by the Thamaga gang members and they started to throw stones at him.”
“I thought they were going to kill him, like they were stoning him to death. He fell to the ground and that is when the other guy took the chain out of nowhere and hit him on the head, and blood started to splash out. That is when I went to call for help.”
Another student said: “They are really tormenting us. At times during the tea break they take all the food and throw away the rest. We would return to class hungry. We report them but everyone is just afraid of them.”
The Mmegi team visited one of the students who has stitches in the middle of his head and a knife stab wound on his hip.
The distraught mother narrated the ordeal. “I came home to find my last born daughter covered in blood to a point I could not recognise her.
“She told me that she witnessed her brother being brutally beaten to a pulp by the other gang members. My son now has a deep cut in the middle of his head, a knife wound in the hip area, which doctors said he was lucky enough not to penetrate his pelvic area.
“I am not sure what to make of this. I do not know what they were possessed with. I am told after surrounding him, ba ne ba mo kgobotletsa ka matlapa.
“One of them reached out for a chain and struck him in the middle of the head before another took out a knife and stabbed him multiple times. My son’s blood is still there at the school,” narrated the mother. Moshupa police station commander, Oteng Ngada also confirmed the incident. He said they have arrested four Moshupa Senior Secondary School students.
“The four boys appeared on Thursday at the Kanye Magistrate Court charged with unlawful wounding,” he said.
The police further confirmed that two were injured and were then taken to hospital after the bloody incident. But the police denied any state of panic. “I do not think its time to raise an alarm yet. We have it all under control. We are prepared for any situation,” the police chief said.