Community Tensions Escalate as School Set Alight Following Recurring Shootings and Stabbings in Eldorado Park
Dereleen James
ActionSA Member of Parliament
ActionSA once again urges the Department of Basic Education to urgently deploy additional resources to ensure the safety of learners in Eldorado Park, following the suspected arson attack at Lancea Vale Secondary School, where gang fights just last week resulted in the stabbing and injury of a learner.
Following our formal request for urgent intervention sent to both the Basic Education Minister and the Police Minister last week, which the Basic Education Minister’s office acknowledged, ActionSA believes that the alarming burning of the school marks an escalation in the tensions evident across Eldorado Park.
The community’s genuine frustration over gang violence, the proliferation illegal guns and school safety has been starkly highlighted by an incident at Willow Crescent Secondary School, where armed assailants opened fire, leaving parents and learners deeply traumatised.
Regrettably, the local SAPS remains under-resourced and overwhelmed and is therefore unable to arrest the declining state of safety in Eldorado Park, where gangs and criminals with no regard for human life continue to terrorise the community, we fear that the rising tensions will result in the continued loss of life and disruptions to schooling in the area.
ActionSA believes that the escalating violence in Eldorado Park severely jeopardises the safety of children in schools and the broader community and we call on SAPS, the Department of Basic Education, and all other relevant stakeholders take urgent action to ensure that learners have access to a safe and conducive learning environment free from violence.
Community Tensions Escalate as School Set Alight Following Recurring Shootings and Stabbings in Eldorado Park
ActionSA once again urges the Department of Basic Education to urgently deploy additional resources to ensure the safety of learners in Eldorado Park, following the suspected arson attack at Lancea Vale Secondary School, where gang fights just last week resulted in the stabbing and injury of a learner.
Following our formal request for urgent intervention sent to both the Basic Education Minister and the Police Minister last week, which the Basic Education Minister’s office acknowledged, ActionSA believes that the alarming burning of the school marks an escalation in the tensions evident across Eldorado Park.
The community’s genuine frustration over gang violence, the proliferation illegal guns and school safety has been starkly highlighted by an incident at Willow Crescent Secondary School, where armed assailants opened fire, leaving parents and learners deeply traumatised.
Regrettably, the local SAPS remains under-resourced and overwhelmed and is therefore unable to arrest the declining state of safety in Eldorado Park, where gangs and criminals with no regard for human life continue to terrorise the community, we fear that the rising tensions will result in the continued loss of life and disruptions to schooling in the area.
ActionSA believes that the escalating violence in Eldorado Park severely jeopardises the safety of children in schools and the broader community and we call on SAPS, the Department of Basic Education, and all other relevant stakeholders take urgent action to ensure that learners have access to a safe and conducive learning environment free from violence.