School-based violence under the spotlight

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KNYSNA NEWS - Reviewing crime hot spots in Knysna and addressing school-based crime prevention was the reason for a recent visit to Knysna by national deputy minister of police Bongani Mkongi.

He started off his visit on Thursday 18 January with a meeting with top police officials from Knysna and Eden District, and the Knysna CPF, to discuss the challenges that the town's crime fighters are facing.

His first visit was to the taxi rank, where he stopped to address a few residents and took the time to pose for some photos.

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Afterwards he visited more areas, among others Dam-se-Bos and Concordia.

The feedback received from the visits to these areas would be included in the police’s future planning and resource management.

This brought Mkongi and his entourage to his final destination, Concordia High School, where he was to address school-based crime prevention in a stakeholder engagement.

Among the attendees were school principals and school governing bodies, police officials, other law enforcement representatives and representatives from neighbourhood watches within and outside Knysna.

Knysna mayor Eleanore Bouw-Spies said in her welcome address that she welcomed the engagement as she is aware of how crime and gang-related activities are affecting Greater Knysna schools.

The main stated reason for Mkongi's visit was for the police to interact with not only the leaders of the community, but with the community itself, regarding crime and gang-related activities in schools.

In his speech, however, Mkongi spoke mostly about how to uplift police members and the police service.

Deputy minister of police Bongani Mkongi takes time to pose with a resident during his visit to the Knysna taxi rank on 18 January.

He touched on school-based crimes by suggesting the following three measures:

Issue free sanitary pads to girls in school.
Issue free scientific calculators to increase passing rates for matriculants.
Stamping down on crime and gang-related activities at schools. He did not offer any explanation as to how this would be done.

Among the attendees at the stakeholder engagement were school principals and school governing bodies (SGB), police officials, other law enforcement representatives and representatives from neighbourhood watches within and outside Knysna.