LobSec suspected terror gang suspended

Tumelo Mouwane | Thursday July 13, 2017 16:07

In an interview on the sidelines of a career fair held by the class of 1998 at the school yesterday, Motlhageng said the suspended students had become a threat to the safety of teachers and students after carrying knives to school.  He said necessary procedures were followed to try to mould the students behaviour, but in vain. 

“When I arrived in LOBSEC back in January, I realised that there was a serious lack of discipline of students in the school, especially a group of 10 boys who had become a cause for concern to the safety of other students and teachers in the school,” he said.

He said when they traced the behaviour of this group, they realised that it started back in Form 4 and further uncovered that they were drug addicts at junior school. “They are regular clients at the police station and in most instances we were called after they were arrested for possession of drugs.

That was the main thing that worried us and as we speak the boys in question are on suspension. They are on maximum suspension because they were habitual offenders,” she said. The headmaster said some teachers had indicated that they would not go back to class until action was taken against the gang. She pointed out that the gang have a case of attempted rape before the police. 

“In addressing the issue, we ended up calling a meeting with all the stakeholders including the district commissioner, kgosi and other leaders to address boys in the school because the trend grew amongst boys. These are children who under the influence of drugs have the capability of committing offences whilst in school,” Motlhageng said.

Meanwhile, commencement of major refurbishment of dilapidated facilities at the school will start during the President holidays. Motlhageng said the school has been funded with P1 million to refurbish the hostel blocks and re-build the boundary wall. LOBSEC has been faced with several challenges, which compromised hygiene such as the 400-bed hostel facility, which was reportedly over-populated.

A classroom was set aside to be used as a hostel to address the problem. Area councillor, Themba Stimela has on several occasions called on the Lobatse Town Council to intervene in a situation that he called “unsafe and unhealthy” for students to be living in.