SOUTH AFRICA COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM SCHOOLStar - Soweto school burglary will leave pupils hungrySoweto school burglary will leave pupils hungry
May 16, 2005

By Botho Molosankwe

Pupils of Ditau primary school in Orlando East have been dealt two blows in two days when burglars stole their food and computers.

The first burglary happened on Saturday when burglars gained entry to the school's administration block by creating a hole in the wall.

They disarmed the alarm system and went into the principal's office by creating another hole. They stole six transistor radios used during lessons.

After leaving the office in chaos, they proceeded into the storeroom where they stole the pupils' food.

They took two 50kg bags of samp, a 50kg bag of mealie meal, a 25kg bag of soya mince and four tins of jam.

This morning, the pupils and teachers arrived at school to find that after the police left yesterday, the burglars broke into the school's computer laboratory.

They gained entrance by breaking the steel door, and disarmed the alarm system.

They stole 19 hard drives, leaving behind the keyboards and monitors.

The school's head of department, Yvonne Ribisi, said the schools served the poorest of the poor in the community.

"Kids usually leave home without eating anything and are solely dependent on the school's feeding system."

She said the food that is left would last them only until Friday. The food was supposed to take them to the end of the month.


"We will have to improvise by using donated money to buy the food," she said.

The school has 475 pupils from Grade R to Grade 6. Of the 475 pupils, the scheme feeds 230 pupils.

A Grade 4 pupil, Thapelo Lamola (11), says he comes to school every day because of the food, "I'm heartbroken because I eat at school every day and I don't know whether I will have food tomorrow."

Grade 5 pupil Tsepo Mohunane (15) said he depended on the feeding scheme. "If I don't get food at school, I will go hungry," he said.

Principal Surprise Mokgatlhe, said the break-in was the seventh since March. In all the other instances, only windows were broken and nothing was stolen. This was the first time that anything had been stolen.

She said the parents were informed of the burglaries at a parents' meeting held yesterday and they indicated that they were very angry, especially at the fact that the school has no security guards.

"We don't have funding to hire guards. We used to have guards after the construction of the computer laboratory, but they were removed after a while. We don't know why. The department of education was paying for them," she said.

Classes continued as normal this morning.

bmol@star.co.za