MEC Dugmore's Visit to Manenberg Where Learner Was Stabbed to Death

A grade 11 learner Cheslin Jones, 17, was found by fellow learners laying in the streets after school hours a few blocks away. He had stab wounds to his head and back.

The learners took him back to the school, where the principal, fellow educators and later medical personnel tried to resuscitate him for more than an hour. He died at about 16h30.

The MEC visited the school this morning to express his condolences with the educators, learners and family, and to share with them issues of safety concerns.

The MEC undertook to convene a meeting with all stakeholders in education, including all schools, teacher unions, governing bodies and learners within the next month in Manenburg, to share ideas of how to combat threats to the lives of learners and teachers.

MEC Dugmore stressed the importance of education working with other stakeholders, such as Community Safety, to ensure the safety of the whole community.

"In as much as our Safe Schools programme is doing good work, we must work with everybody else to look at broader issues of poverty, gangsterism and crime.

"I am also in the process of reviewing the Safe Schools programme with a view to strengthen it and give it more resources, said MEC Dugmore."

In a brief message to learners, he acknowledged the tragedy of the event, but urged to them to remain focused on their school work. The MEC urged them not to succumb to peer pressure, which would lead them to indulge in drugs, alcohol, gangsterism and crime.

He warned of the consequences of anyone thinking about "revenge", and urged the law to take its course. MEC Dugmore congratulated the police with the speedy investigations and arrest of two suspects.

After visiting the school, MEC Dugmore visited the mother of Cheslin Jones, the deceased learner, to express his condolences to the family, and assured them of the support of the Western Cape Education Department.

Officials from the Central Education Management and Development Centre (EMDC), remained at the school to continue offer counselling and debriefing support to learners and educators.

For enquiries, contact Gert Witbooi: 082 550 3938, or gwitbooi@pgwc.gov.za.