Lesufi demands answers from community for Menzi Primary School robbery ...or else
Gauteng's education department is demanding answers after the state-of-the-art Menzi Primary School was robbed - just a week after it was opened.
And to get to the bottom of the situation, it is expected to visit the Langaville community in Tsakane on Thursday.
If no answers are forthcoming, the department will have no choice but to withdraw all expensive equipment from the school, Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi warned.
"I am not going to leave there until they tell us who stole our property. If they don't, then we have to take out the entire expensive equipment from that community, which is something we don't want to do," Lesufi said.
He said a meeting with the community was scheduled for 17:00 on Thursday.
Lesufi was briefing the media after opening a new school in Centurion on Wednesday.
He said he was still in a "state of shock" as a result of the robbery that occurred in the early hours of Tuesday.
Lesufi said he also believed that a syndicate responsible for robberies at schools in Duduza in Ekurhuleni over the festive season, was also behind the Tsakane school incident.
"This equipment belongs to that community. We are in the majority, we can't be terrorised by fewer people. We can't be terrorised by the minority," he said.
He added that he would visit the community along with other stakeholders and believed that the Ekurhuleni mayor, Mzwandile Masina, was also organising a reward for anyone who offered information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the robbery at the school.
"When we leave that community tomorrow evening, the community should say the person that stole this thing is Person X," said Lesufi.
He stressed that it was important that the community united to get the perpetrators arrested.
"If we can't demonstrate to this [person], and if we can't show society that if you do wrong, the community will be united against you, these people will continue doing these things," Lesufi warned.
Items stolen at the school included 185 tablets, eight teacher laptops, two projectors and three desktop computers. A plasma TV and R500 in petty cash were also taken.
