MEC Grant Urges Parents and Community to Look out for Our Children's Safety

"Today marks the end of the 16 days of activism campaign for No Violence against Women and Children, but it also marks the first day of a very vulnerable time for our learners - the summer school holidays," said Minister for Education Donald Grant on Thursday.

"I am asking parents and community members to please look out for our children's safety during this time," he said.

"We can't ignore the fact that there are child predators out there. Children need to be protected, not given free reign or left in dangerous circumstances."

Grant said that it was unfortunate that many of our children go unsupervised during this period.

"All parents must ensure that their children are left under the care of a trusted and responsible adult."

Grant said that the Western Cape Education Department's Safe Schools Division had arranged a number of holiday programmes at specific schools.

"Most of these programmes will run in the week of 14-18 December and will occupy learners with sport activities, arts and crafts and discussions about drug awareness and safety."

In terms of school safety, Grant said that Safe Schools have put in place 24-hour security patrols at 100 identified schools and that 246 schools will receive cluster patrols during the holiday period.

"The Proudly Manenberg Campaign is also working together with Safe Schools in a bid to reduce vandalism in our schools during this time. The campaign has received 100 volunteers from the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), with teams stationed at four of the schools in area."

The Minister urged schools to make sure that their alarm systems were in a working condition and that they test whether their armed response companies would respond should their alarms be activated.

"We are also calling on the community to be vigilant and to report any suspicious behavior at our schools during this period."