The Mpumalanga Department of Education, in collaboration with the Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison and the South African Police Services, conducted a random search and seizure operation at Umjindi Circuit in the City of Mbombela yesterday.
Schools visited during the operation are Barberton High School, Barberton Secondary and Kamhola Secondary.
Knives and illegal substances, which include amongst others dagga and tik, were found and confiscated.
The search was extended to the primary source that supplied the learners with the illicit drugs, and some people were arrested.
The Department is appealing to parents to check their children’s school bags from time to time and to speak to them about the consequences of abusing and dealing with illicit substances.
The Department will continue to work together with these stakeholders to free schools from drug and substance abuse as well as trafficking.
Together we can build our communities and save our learners from the drug peddlers.
They raided three schools in Barberton and found several boxes of matches collected with compressed dagga, knives and cigarettes.
Pretoria – Mpumalanga MEC for Community Safety, Security and Liaison, Vusi Shongwe, has praised the law enforcement team for seizing several items, including dangerous weapons, from students during a search operation.
According to Vusi Shongwe, “It is deeply disappointing to see this type of bullshit, especially after giving so many programmes and awareness campaigns conducted by the department in schools.”
However, Our programmes will continue to be rolled out at schools across the province. We remain relentless in our endeavours to make our schools safer for effective learning and teaching, said Shongwe.
He also blamed suppliers who supplied the learners with drugs and appealed to the parents to help in pointing out those people.
These children are our future, and we should save them from these heartless and unscrupulous people who do not care about our future, said Shongwe.
Some of the learners also revealed the names who supplied them with these kinds of things.
Mpumalanga MEC said that these types of raids are part of the government’s broader school safety strategy. He also requested students and young people to become more focused on their studies and positive lifestyles.
