The Gauteng Hawks spokesperson, Captain Lloyd Ramovha, has confirmed that the two bogus Zimbabwean national-ran Hillcrest International School and Academy of Sciences in Ferndale, Randburg which were operating illegally were closed down on Monday as they were not registered with the Basic Education Department and the director was arrested.
The Hawks nabbed the Director of the schools, Petros Lyson and his two sons, Rawlings and Rodney Lyson and other eight foreign nationals who were instrumental in running the school illegally for almost two years.
Ramovha told IOL that the arrests came after they went to school looking for the mastermind Lyson for an incident that occurred at OR-Tambo International airport on August 1, where he allegedly facilitated fraudulent paperwork to traffic four minors aged between 11 and 15 to Dublin, Ireland.
Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) spokesperson, Steve Mabona, told IOL that the school principal stated that the school started operating in 2019.
Containing the situation, Mabona mentioned that the school was closed down, parents were consulted and consequently, the learners were placed in different neighbouring registered independent and public schools.
He said that out of twelve educators, only one was a South African and qualified, and "the rest of the teachers were foreign nationals and not qualified."
Between January to February 2023, Mabona said the Department embarked on an intense Operation Vala campaign to close illegally operating schools wherein two days were allocated to solely deal with reported illegally operating schools.
"We have collaborated with law enforcement agencies, SAPS, Municipalities, Hawks, JMPD, and EMS," he said.
To help tackle the issue of running illegal schools that were not registered with the Basic Education Department, he encouraged the public to report schools that were suspected to be operating illegally on three hotline numbers, 0608910312, 0608910310 and 0608910334.
The group appeared in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on March 9 on charges of fraud and was also charged with failure to register the institutions which is a contravention of the South African Schools Act.
"The court has remanded them in custody pending their bail application scheduled for 13 and 16 March," Ramovha said.
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