It is more than shameful that our children are being terrorised by thugs either on their way to or at school.
We first reported on this troubling phenomenon in KwaNobuhle in August, when little children just starting out on what should have been an exciting school journey were being intimidated into paying R1 or R2 a day by older pupils to avoid being bullied.
Now pupils from two secondary schools are being targeted. And this is probably only the tip of the iceberg.
The extortionists, it seems, are demanding protection fees from pupils from Khayelitsha who have no choice but to walk the sole road leading to the schools. There are no alternative routes.
The children are being threatened, bullied, beaten and even stabbed if they cannot come up with the amounts demanded — between R45 and R100 daily — creating a living nightmare for them, with some pulling out of school as a consequence.
They are mostly targeted near a bridge on Ponana Tini Road, which separates Khayelitsha from the rest of KwaNobuhle.
A community leader said the protection fee racket in schools was new and frightening and spiralling out of control in KwaNobuhle.
One parent said his son had been beaten in September for refusing to pay R45 and had come home with his face bleeding. He missed four days of school.
Another child pulled out of school after being accosted last week.
One resident said he had intervened recently when a few children, all in school uniform, stood at the bridge and threatened to stone a girl if she did not pay them R50.
They ran away when he confronted them.
It cannot be that hard to protect a single road during the times the children walk to and from school. It only requires the will to do so.
If the police are unable to patrol that stretch of road during those times, then the metro police must.
Where are they, by the way?
Alternatively, perhaps private security companies can come together, and arrange patrols there during the relevant times.
Parents can also form groups and do the same.
At the end of the day, visible policing or community patrols are needed to safeguard these children.
They need immediate protection — not just talk and promises — and there must be harsh consequences for the perpetrators to nip this nasty practice in the bud before it spreads even further.
HeraldLIVE
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