Staff saved from hail of stones

VEHICLES and windows were damaged with stones and desks were set alight by Matthew Goniwe Memorial High School pupils who demanded yesterday that suspended classmates be allowed to return to school.

Principal Ntomboxolo Mqumbisa and teachers were escorted out of the school by police as pupils threw stones at them and into the school grounds. Five vehicles in the grounds were damaged.

Vehicles along Nyathi Avenue, on which the school is located, were also targeted.

Pupils gathered in front of the school, along Nyathi Avenue and on the corner of Bonga Drive in Khayelitsha. Police fired tear gas to disperse them, but they regrouped.

“According to our information, the principal tried to discipline a few learners and this led to the protest action. The police had to escort the principal and some staff members off the premises,” said Millicent Merton, a spokeswoman for the Western Cape Education Department.

She said the department would investigate.

A Grade 12 pupil, who asked not to be named, fear- ing he would be expelled, said five pupils had been suspended by the principal, apparently for not attending holiday classes in June.

He said some of the pupils had gone to the principal demanding that their classmates be allowed back.

“We tried talking to the principal, but he wanted nothing to do with us.

“Even the police – when they came here they just started shooting and didn’t ask what the problem was,” the pupil said.

Another pupil, who also did not want to be named, said pupils had vowed to stay away until the five returned.

Pupils said they would continue the protest today if the others were not allowed to return to school.

Police spokesman Tembinkosi Kinana said a public violence case was being investigated. No arrests had been made and there were no reports of injuries.

“It is alleged that schoolchildren started their riots in protest at an earlier incident at school. The police responded swiftly to the call and managed to diffuse the situation. It is not clear how many schoolchildren were involved in the protest.”