Pretoria - Limpopo education MEC Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya has condemned an incident where two learners stabbed each other at Nngweni Secondary School in Nzhelele on Monday.
The two Grade 11 pupils were allegedly involved in a fight, where one sustained a cut to the hand and the other was stabbed in the shoulder.
It is also alleged that the two, who are in the same class, brought a knife and an axe into the school premises.
The Limpopo department of education said the injured learners were taken to a nearby clinic and the matter was later referred to the police.
Lerule-Ramakhanya remarked that school violence was “destructive” and affected learning and teaching, “most especially now when matric learners are busy with the preparatory examinations”.
The MEC said she was calling on all stakeholders and law enforcement agencies to assist her provincial department in ensuring that schools remained a safe place for learning.
Lerule-Ramakhanya is set to convene a seminar to address bullying, gangsterism and in-school violence next month. The gathering will seek ways of addressing the challenges bedevilling South African schools.
“I want to make a plea to parents, teachers and all the interested stakeholders to ensure that our schools remain a place of learning. I am disturbed by the report of learners who stabbed each other with dangerous weapons that are not permitted in our school premises,” she said.
“The incident happened in the middle of matric preliminary examinations, and it will surely have a negative impact on the learners writing in that particular school.”
Last month, Mpumalanga MEC for community safety, security and liaison, Vusi Shongwe, lauded law enforcement agents for seizing several items including dangerous weapons from learners during a search and seizure operation.
The anti-crime operations were conducted at three high schools in Barberton.
The seized items included several boxes of matches stashed with compressed dagga, as well as knives and cigarettes.
“It is deeply disappointing that despite all the programmes and awareness campaigns that the department with stakeholders, conduct in schools, we still find these levels of delinquency in some of our schools,” Shongwe said.
IOL