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10/24/2006

Shocking figures reveal rape trends in SA

October 24 2006 at 04:35AM

By Karen Breytenbach

Almost a fifth of South African men have raped a woman at least once in their lives, the South African Medical Research Council (MRC) has disclosed in releasing its annual report.

The MRC's Gender and Health Research Unit interviewed 1 370 men between the ages of 15 and 26 about sexual violence towards women.

About eight percent of respondents reported having been sexually violent towards their intimate partner, while 16.3 percent reported raping a non-partner or participating in some form of gang-rape.

'We have to teach boys and men to respect women'
Also noted was an overlap of 44 percent of men raping non-partners and intimate partners. The mean age at which respondents first raped a woman was 17.

The MRC considers this research paper of "substantial international importance" as it is the first of its kind outside North America. It is also the first to have a single set of data on the rape of intimate and non-intimate partners. The findings contribute significantly to an understanding of why rape is so common in South Africa.

The researchers looked at reasons why men raped and common factors in their backgrounds. Adversity in childhood, alcohol abuse and, surprisingly, a more educated mother were associated with partner and non-partner rapes. Non-partner rapes were also associated with greater susceptibility to peer pressure to have sex, membership of a gang or using drugs.

The destructive impact of apartheid on the family made many children vulnerable to sexual and emotional abuse, the study found.

"The other noticeable set of factors are those related to particular ideas of masculinity, where women are seen as objects to be conquered and controlled, sex is often seen as an impersonal act of physical gratification, with masculinity often defined in terms of sexual conquest, and where male peer group bonding is emphasised," the MRC report read.

"Contrary to popular belief that men who rape are poor and unable to win women for consensual sex, we found men of relatively higher social status were more likely to rape."

A survey of 1 295 sexually active women from the rural Eastern Cape explored the link between HIV and gender-based violence. HIV infection was associated with having three or more partners in the preceding year and having a partner who was three or more years older and more educated than the woman.

The Health Promotion Research and Development Group found sexual assault, violence and depression common among HIV-positive women. A sub-division of the unit is looking into male attitudes and is working with traditional leaders to include health messages during initiation.

"Especially in terms of HIV, men are part of the problem. We have to teach boys and men to respect their sexual health and women," Mbewu said.

  • This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Times on October 24, 2006

14:10 Posted in Crime | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: south Africa, world cup 2010, Crime, ANC, Mbeki, Johannesburg

10/23/2006

Why children are raping other children

The ANC never ceases to amaze me with their nonsense. If their theory is to hold true, why is this not happening around the world.

Karyn Maughan
    October 23 2006 at 04:38AM

Eighty-two children are charged in courts across the country every day for raping or indecently assaulting other children. A Pretoria News investigation has found that processing by the state of child-committed sexual offences has nearly doubled in the past year.

Police, prosecutors, social workers and child rights activists estimate that between 25 percent and 43 percent of the perpetrators of sex and violent crimes against children are children themselves - some as young as six.

Approaching school holidays - which are peak periods for child-committed offences - now threaten to increase the 130 059 child sex offenders processed by the state between 1999 and March this year. Of these, 146 have been sentenced to prison terms and 161 are awaiting trial.


In the last three months, three pupils have been stabbed to death by fellow pupils in three separate incidents in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, and an 18-month-old toddler has been brutally assaulted by two 11-year-old boys in Mabopane.

'We know police seldom open such dockets'
The problem has become so bad that several state-supported rehabilitation organisations have - in the absence of any concrete laws to deal with children accused of crime - recently launched diversion programmes aimed specifically at child sex offenders.

And, if ground-breaking research by a Gauteng academic and child abuse counsellor is to be believed, a "huge" proportion of these children claim their sexual abuse of other children was inspired by acts they witnessed on television.

Meanwhile, we have seven reports from angry parents who were turned away from police stations in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Gauteng when they tried to lay sexual abuse charges on behalf of their children against other children.

"I was told these are children; we can't do anything," a woman from KwaZulu-Natal said. She claims her seven-year-old daughter was forced to perform oral sex on three boys aged between nine and 11.

She said she had decided to move to her mother's home in the Western Cape to shield her daughter from further abuse.
'It is difficult to quantify the extent of the problem'
Senior Superintendent Anneke Pienaar, national co-ordinator of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit, denied that police could not do anything to address sexual abuse claims made by children against other children.

She said police were given specific instructions on how to process all reports of child-perpetrated crime and had to accept such charges.

But Pienaar admitted police had noticed a "definite increase" in the number of sexual abuse allegations made against children. And, she said, the alleged perpetrators of this abuse were "getting younger and younger".

Studies in KwaZulu-Natal last year showed that a staggering 90 percent of all male child sex offenders between the ages of 13 and 18 had been exposed to pornography and "believed that this had an impact on the development of their abusive behaviour".

Shaheda Omar, therapeutic manager at the Teddy Bear Clinic in Johannesburg, has interviewed 100 child sex offenders and their mothers "from across the social spectrum" for her doctoral research project.

"What surprised me was that most of these children had not been sexually abused themselves, although they may have witnessed sexual or physical abuse. What united them was the influence of media on their behaviour," she said.

While some children claimed they wanted to emulate love scenes in soap operas like The Bold And The Beautiful, others admitted they had been inspired by late-night pornography on e.tv.

Soweto Protea Court prosecutors Nadine Nel and Louise Smit confirmed both Childline's research and Omar's preliminary findings.

"Usually, when you first ask a child why they did certain sexual things to another child, they shrug their soldiers and say they don't know. But later they will tell you they saw things on The Bold And The Beautiful and they wanted to try it," said Smit.

She said that, following the 2001 airing of the infamous Yizo Yizo prison rape scene, the Soweto Protea Court was hit with a spate of "little boys indecently assaulting other little boys".

The child victims of sexual abuse by other children were usually "much younger" than their abusers, Nel and Smit said, with some victims as young as two. This made it very difficult for prosecutors to discover exactly what had happened, because the child did not have the ability to describe his or her abuse and medical evidence was usually inconclusive.

Childline director Joan van Niekerk believes cases of sexual abuse by children are dramatically under-reported. "We know police seldom open such dockets, so it is difficult to quantify the extent of the problem," she said. "Police at station level prefer to tell the parents it is a 'domestic matter' which must be sorted out at home."
  • This article was originally published on page 1 of Pretoria News on October 23, 2006

14:38 Posted in Crime | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: South Africa, Soweto, World Cup, 2010, ANC, Violence, Rape

10/17/2006

Cash Heists

October 17 2006 at 06:51AM

By Vusumuzi Ka Nzapheza

The army will not be deployed to assist embattled cash-in-transit security guards against the danger they face daily, but the police will supply armed officers to accompany the cash vans in a bid to protect security guards and deter armed robbers.

This follows Monday's meeting between Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi, the Motor Transport Workers' Union (MTWU) and its federation, Fedusa.

MTWU spokesperson Emily Fourie said the meeting with Selebi had been positive.

'Even when they are heavily armed robbers'
Last week the union threatened to go on strike unless the government intervened to stop the carnage that has seen security guards transporting cash being killed or seriously wounded almost daily.

"The constitution of the country does not allow the army to be used internally against its own people, even when they are heavily armed robbers," Fourie said.





Selebi told the meeting the cash-in-transit heists, which had increased by 74 percent since 2005, were already receiving urgent attention in partnership with the South African Banking Risk Intelligence Centre (Sabric) and the South African Reserve Bank.

All the banks in the country were also involved in a project on bank robberies and cash-heists called Operation Greed. Business Against Crime was also involved in combating commercial crimes.

Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni said recently the cash-heists were one of the things that kept him awake at night.

Curb the spate of heists
"We have to ensure that cash is available throughout the country by moving it in bulk from the main production points to every part of the country," Mboweni said.

Fourie said the meeting agreed on some actions that needed to be taken immediately to curb the spate of heists.

"The police will help with the training of security personnel and with minimum standards in respect of the equipment," she said.

Currently, a security guard wanting to work in the cash-in-transit industry gets three weeks' training, which includes firearm handling and accounting work.

Fourie said the union, which claims to represent 90 percent of the cash-in-transit industry, will hold further meetings with the employers about conditions of employment.

The participation of the employers was necessary because some of the problems, such as a shortage of bulletproof vests and the lack of air-conditioning in some of the vehicles, could be addressed immediately by them, Fourie said.

In the long-term, the law could also allow security guards to carry heavier weapons instead of the current 9mm and .38 pistols against the criminals' AK-47 and R5 rifles.

The union will decide on Monday whether the planned protest action should go ahead.




This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Times on October 17, 2006

15:21 Posted in Crime | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: South Africa, CAsh Heists, Crime, World Cup 2010, Safari, Game parks

10/16/2006

SA won't be ready for 2010, IOL readers say

October 11 2006 at 12:05PM

By Renee Moodie

Eighty percent of people who voted in an IOL poll believe that South Africa will not be ready to host the 2010 soccer World Cup.

The poll was based partly on a Business Report article, quoting construction giant Murray & Roberts as saying that there will be no room to extend time for construction of stadiums for the World Cup as it takes a minimum of 36 months to build a "specification stadium" without a roof.

A total of 1 035 people voted on the question “Do you think our infrastructure will be ready before the start of the 2010 Soccer World Cup?”, with 213 – or 20 percent - saying yes, and 832 - or 80 percent - saying no.


Comments from those who believed the country will not be ready were:

  • The infrastructure is not there (rob).
  • Hell will freeze over before we are ready for 2010 (Adele).
  • This country is not yet ready to host a function of this magnitude (MarkN).
  • Just look at your current headlines - R89-million lost by Marine & Coastal Management, Hammanskral school buildings in shambles, Zuma best choice to head SA etc etc. You make up your own mind (zil).
  • By the time 2010 comes along, half the money allocated will be stolen, there will be investigations but no convictions, there will be internal fighting in the football union, the building contractrors will have gone on strike, SARFU will be running around like chickens with no heads with the begging bowl in both hands pleading with anyone who will help, the cement supplies will have dried up and most of all the qualified and competent skilled labout will have been chased from the country by the ANC. (Imboriako)
  • Germany knew which roads would be closed and how traffic would be routed 4 YEARS before the World Cup kicked off. We are nowhere near that sort of organisation. That is the difference between First World and Third World mentality. There will be allegations of missing money, worker strikes before this is over. (Anton)

    Those who think we will be ready said:
Have a little faith and work together
  • Yet another opportunity for white South Africans to shoot their country down. Clearly so few of you know much about the rest of the world. remember that Fifa (except for one corrupt new zealander) thought we were just as good as Germany for the 2006 world cup. (Anon).
  • We have a more transparent government than any in the world. We have a huge and cheap labour force to build our stadiums. Our country is one of the top 10 international conference venues in the world and we have hosted world cup cricket and rugby events. We have no reasons not to be ready and we have more skills than most places in the world. (Goliath)

  • I definitely think we'll be ready. If Fifa believes we can do it, why can't we? Everyone else thinks it's possible, it's up to us to be positive and stop complaining. Many people lament that South Africa's spirit is gone. I think 2010 is a perfect opportunity for us all just to have a little faith and work together. (Rose)
  • As long as we start soon, we'll be OK. There are too many in SA that are automatically negative. We've hosted huge events before (World Cups and WSSD) without a problem, so let's just get to work! (Duncan)

    Some who simply hope we will be ready said:

  • Call us optimistic, denial or whatever we will be ready for our World Cup!!!! It also took Germans 36 months to complete some of their stadiums. on the year of the tournament their stadiums were completed. 2010 here we come!!!!! (Zolani)
  • As a South African and a proud one at that, I can only hope that all will be ready, but like anything in life nothing is guaranteed. (merylin)

    And some took a more complex stance:

  • I'm sure we will do what is needed for 4 weeks of football. My concern is that the R20,000,000,0000 or whatever could be spent in a better way and not simply for a football tournament leaving, among other things, magnificent empty football stadia. What benefit will accrue to shack dwellers, unemployed, victims of the high crime rate, inadequate transport system used by millions every day, people not near World Cup venues ??
  • If the stadiums are ready in time, it will be because of the Government eventually throwing all the money they have at the project in order to keep face. It will not be because of their good planning etc. (Anon)

 

15:10 Posted in Zuma Trial | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: south Africa, world cup 2010, Crime, ANC, Mbeki, Johannesburg

Eersterus lives in fear

October 16 2006 at 09:39AM

By Janine du Plessis

Parents in Eersterus, near Pretoria, say they are panicking over the high incidence of violent crime in their community.

In the past month alone two children were raped, a young woman's badly bruised body was found and a young man was killed in a shooting at a pub.

Parents and children with placards calling for the death penalty gathered outside the police station at the weekend, wanting to know why the authorities "do not care about what is going on in the area".

Many of the parents who protested against the increase in violent crimes had themselves lost a child to crime.

The rape and murder of eight-year-old Janine Rooi, whose body was found on a hilltop after she went missing for a week in September, shook the community. Then the badly swollen and bruised body of Fabiana Daniels, 25, was found in the playground of a local school.

The latest victim is a three-year-old, who was raped a little over a week ago and is still recovering in Pretoria Academic Hospital.

The little girl's aunt and guardian, Nellie Vos, said the perpetrator had slammed her hard on the floor, hurting her forehead. "Her eyes are still swollen. I pray for her health."

She said the man was attacked by community members. "They stoned him and hit him with sticks. He is in hospital after what they did to him," said Vos.

Police confirmed that a rape case had been opened, but could not say whether the suspect had been attacked.

Vos said crime had been bad for years, but it was now out of control. "It is dangerous here. I am scared to leave my house because I do not know what these criminals have planned," said Vos.

Betty Kleynhans lost her 28-year-old son when he was shot 11 times by a gang 10 years ago.

She said that a young man was buried after a shooting incident at the Play Time bar the previous weekend.

Police spokesperson Brenda Kgafela confirmed the incident. "Four or five men bought beer and when they went back to their car they were confronted by a group. Several shots were fired at them.

"One was hit in the leg and rushed to hospital, but another was shot in the neck and died on the scene," she said.

The organiser of the protest, Ingrid Louw, said the community had to unite to fight crime.

"We do not get enough support from the rest of the community. People do not know what is going on here," said Louw.

Janine's father, still visibly upset by the murder of his daughter, attended the protest. Cornelius Rooi said although the family had received much support from the community at Janine's funeral "this is not about my child - it is about the next victim".

He said he was hurt by the blatant lies the police had told the media about their investigation into her disappearance a week prior to the discovery of her body.

"What I have realised is that if you have money then you have a lot in this country. When it comes to poor communities the police do not care. If I had lived in Brooklyn they would have searched for my child 24 hours a day. I do not know why they built a new police station because the crime is still increasing.

"Our kids are dying. Every time I hear of another victim it opens up the wounds and I feel the pain of the parents," said Rooi.

Another concerned resident said the criminals knew the police force was small in Eersterus. Anthony Phillips said the police could not even supply two sniffer dogs to help in the search for Janine. "When the community launched a search and found the body we still had to wait over four hours for someone to take her body down the hill.

"The police again could not supply a helicopter to carry her body," said an upset Phillips.

Dolores Williams lost her child three years ago in a shooting incident and feels the community was traumatised after the last month's incidents.

"We need a place where people can be counselled, not only the parents but the siblings too because they are the ones who become angry at the world. If, as a community, we can be seen to, it will help," she said.

However, she said there were many good people and things in Eersterus. "The police must just see to these elements in the area," she said.



  • This article was originally published on page 3 of Pretoria News on October 16, 2006

14:48 Posted in Crime | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: south Africa, world cup 2010, Crime, ANC, Mbeki, Johannesburg

Sheriff battling to serve MPs with subpoenas

October 15 2006 at 12:48PM

By Chiara Carter

The sheriff of Cape Town is drowning in a sea of unserved subpoenas and summons for MPs and government officials at parliament. And, judging from the large number of debt-related demands, many officials and MPs in turn, are battling to keep their heads above water.

The sheriff, Hennie Hurter, said: "There are a stack of these things, but we battle to get to serve them."

The papers piling up in the sheriff's office - between 20 and 30 a month - relate to matters ranging from garnishee orders for deductions from salaries to maintenance claims and unpaid debts.

The targets of the sheriff's unwelcome attentions include Chief Whip Mbulelo Goniwe, whom Hurter has unsuccessfully tried to subpoena for a maintenance hearing in the Eastern Cape. But Goniwe , and the others are shielded by parliamentary privilege.
The sheriff, whose offices are a stone's throw from parliament, has to have permission from the presiding officers to serve papers within the parliamentary precincts.

Each week Hurter's office sends letters to parliament's legal advisers with copies of the documents they intend serving to get permission to enter. "Sometime we get a yes - especially if it is a garnishee order aimed at an employer who must make deductions from someone's salary. Aside from Goniwe, we've mostly had co-operation from Parliament this year on maintenance related matters. But on the other matters we often are either ignored or refused.

According to many, a large number of MPs and officials struggle to make it through the month on their salaries.

This situation is often compounded by their having to do constituency work and those new to the lifestyle falling into a debt-trap.

It has been alleged that National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete has been blocking the sheriff's attempts to subpoena Goniwe for a maintenance hearing. Goniwe said he refused to comment on a "private, family matter", but the issue is to be raised in parliament by the DA next week.

Lulamile Mapholoba, political adviser to Mbete, said the speaker's office was not aware of any attempt to summons Goniwe in parliament's precincts.



  • This article was originally published on page 1 of Sunday Argus on October 15, 2006

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10/15/2006

All in a days work as hijackers go on spree

October 09 2006 at 04:26PM

A hijacker was killed and a crime victim wounded in a crime spree in Port Elizabeth on Monday, police said.

Captain Verna Brink said three men first hijacked a Polo in Kwazakhele, which they drove to Salt Lake.

Once there they rammed into a bakkie in which a tavern owner was carrying money.

The bakkie overturned, and the robbers shot the owner in the stomach before taking the money and fleeing on foot.

A few streets up, the men hijacked a Toyota Tazz.

Once in the car, the owner of the Tazz shot the hijacker who was driving in the head. He died instantly.
The two remaining suspects abandoned the Tazz and fled the scene in direction of the bush, where they hijacked a Lion's Plumbers vehicle.

They drove on a gravel road where the vehicle stalled. They got out and ran away.

Police were investigating the four crime scenes, Brink said. - Sapa

14:40 Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: south Africa, world cup 2010, Crime, ANC, Mbeki, Cape Town, Highjack

10/13/2006

SA citizens fed up with corruption

October 13 2006 at 12:13PM

South Africans are angry about growing corruption and that the politically well-connected seem to be the main beneficiaries of democracy, researchers said on Friday.

"It is a season of grievance," the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation's (IJR) Susan Brown said in Johannesburg.

Brown, the IJR's political programme manager, and IJR director Professor Charles Villa-Vicencio presented the findings of the IJR's 2006 transformation audit.

Brown edited the report, titled "Money and Morality".

'Ministers who year after year have dirty departments should lose their jobs'
The audit shows how far South Africa has come in economic transformation and how far it still has to go.

Brown said there was huge anger among citizens over a perceived lack of delivery and lack of access to a closed elite.
"They (this elite) look perhaps to the next election but never to the next generation," said Brown.

Corruption was identified as a key problem.

"The head of the executive (President Thabo Mbeki) is not holding the executive (the ministers) accountable," said Brown.

"Ministers who year after year have dirty departments should lose their jobs. That's accountability," she said.

She named the home affairs and correctional services departments and the provincial premiers as some of the worst problems.

Villa-Vicencio said citizens' anger was due to the income gap, their exclusion from the elite, and corruption.

The IJR defined corruption broadly, including maladministration.

He suggested that the government should prioritise the key issues of battling crime and corruption, and delivering on education and transport.

"If we get these three things in place, I want to suggest we would be a better place for it," said Villa-Vicencio.

He said the IJR presented the report to the Presidency on Thursday.

It is the third IJR transformation audit. Previous reports were also handed to the government.

"I can say without a shadow of a doubt that they read the report, they study it and come back for clarification," said Villa-Vicencio. - Sapa

14:50 Posted in Zuma Trial | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: south Africa, world cup 2010, Crime, ANC, Mbeki, Cape Town, Highjack

10/12/2006

Enough is enough, say cash guards

October 12 2006 at 06:45AM

By Bonile Ngqiyaza

Cash-in-transit guards say they are ready to rebel.

Forty have been killed this year alone, and 90 percent of those robbed say they have been interrogated by the police.

Now the guards are demanding adequate training, better weapons and more police visibility around known heist "hotspots". Otherwise, they warn, ATMs could be left without money by next week and there will be no one to transport cash to and from businesses.

'Spike in heists could be expected as the festive season gets under way'
On the Motor Transport Workers' Union (MTWU) - which claims to be the largest union among cash guards - threatened to go on strike should things not improve in seven days.

This comes after a 15-month-old baby was shot dead on Tuesday during a cash heist.

MTWU general secretary Emily Fourie said a spike in heists could be expected as the festive season gets under way.

"This is a very, very busy time because there is a lot of money around and... people will be getting bonuses.

"We have found we have an increase in the number of heists at this time of the year ," said Fourie.

She expressed exasperation that cash guards were not getting sympathy and co-operation during their work. She claimed that guards were being harassed by the police and the public. "We want our dignity back. These are not animals, these are people - all they want is to perform an honest day's work."

  • This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on October 12, 2006

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10/10/2006

'My son knew he would die on the playground'

Solly Maphumulo
    October 10 2006 at 04:34AM

"If I don't leave this school, I am going to die." This is what Grade 10 pupil Nkosana Mbhele repeatedly told his mother, Maria.

He told her that he had "enemies" at Forest High School and complained about the constant fighting and drug abuse at his school.

Wanting the best for her child, Mbhele insisted her 18-year-old son stay at Forest Hill, in southern Johannesburg, as she felt it was a safe and disciplined environment where he would get a quality education.

On Monday, the concerned parent dropped her son off at the school gates at about 7am.

'I never thought he would die in cold blood'
Minutes later, she received a call on her cellphone informing her that her son was dead - stabbed allegedly by a fellow pupil after an argument over money.

Nkosana's throat had been slit and he had several stab wounds on his body.

On a wall next to his body, Nkosana's blood had been used to sprawl the words "Chaklas was here".

"Chaklas" was the nickname Nkosana was affectionately given by his fellow pupils because of his skills as a pantsula dancer.

A 14-year-old schoolboy was arrested at his Soweto home on Monday night.

'You don't know if you will come out alive'
Police spokesperson Captain Schalk Bornman said the pupil would appear in the Booysens magistrate's court, once investigations had been completed, to face a charge of murder. He was being held in custody.

After the incident, pupils at the school ran wild, jumping over the fence as teachers tried to calm them down. Some threatened to avenge Nkosana's death.

When The Star visited the Mbhele home in Mndeni, Soweto, on Monday night, Mbhele's eyes were red from crying.

She regretted insisting that Nkosana should remain at Forest High School, even though he had repeatedly told her that he did not want to go anymore and that his life was in danger.

"I wanted what's best for him. I did not want him to attend township schools. I wish I had listened to his pleas.

"In my heart I always thought my son was safe at school. I never thought he would die in cold blood on the school premises.

"I did not know schoolchildren have become tsotsis who kill each other at school," Mbhele said.

Nkosana's brother, Tshepo, said it was not the first time he had been attacked at school. Earlier this year he had been assaulted by boys who coveted his new school clothes.

"He came back and told me that he had enemies at the school and some boys were always following him at school and threatening him, because they said he thought he was the boss," Tshepo said.

A pupil at the school, who did not want to be identified, said there had been many fights recently on the school premises and that pupils had even assaulted the vice-principal.

"It is not safe here. Learners are aggressive. Last week there were many fights. Boys took out knives and teachers had to intervene. If you enter the school premises, you don't know if you will come out alive," the pupil said.

She said learners at the school would often go on drug binges during their lunch break and would come back to attack teachers and other learners.

Pupils at the school say they saw Nkosana arguing with a fellow pupil, who stabbed him and then fled the scene.

Nkosana's cousin, Jabulile, said the suspect owed Nkosana money and that her cousin was worried that the boy was going to hurt him.

"I did not take him seriously. Besides, he (the suspect) was a tiny little boy. I did not think he would really hurt him," said Jabulile, who added that Nkosana had been excited about turning 19 on October 21.

Gauteng department of education spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi said he did not know about previous violent incidents at the school.

The department of education has meanwhile increased the budget for school security.

Education MEC Angie Motshekga, who visited Forest High after the incident, said the erection of fences and the locking of gates during school hours are some of the measures taken to protect school children.

National Education Ministry spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele said they were looking at passing legislation to empower teachers to conduct searches in schools.

Ngqengelele has appealed to communities to "get involved in our attempts to get rid of violence in schools".

"We view this as a societal problem. We are calling on all people to get involved in our attempts to get rid of violence in schools," Ngqengelele said.

After an escalation of incidents of violence at schools, the South African Human Rights Commission held hearings on the issue last month.
  • This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on October 10, 2006

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