The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) calls for the harsh punishment of the thugs that stormed a school in Mthatha, Laphumikhwezi Primary, disrupting the school, clapping the school deputy principal, and demanding rental money for the network tower that was erected on the school grounds. SAFTU condemns in the strongest terms these extortionists who are masquerading as community leaders.
We call on the police and law enforcement to hold these thugs accountable for 1) causing a stoppage to learning and teaching at Laphumikhwezi Primary, 2) assaulting the Deputy Principal, and 3) for extortion.
SAFTU welcomes the effort by the government to deploy the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the community safety forums that came out to defend the school. In addition to these commendable efforts by the government, these thugs must be dealt with decisively, as their proliferation seems to be emboldening their thievery. If the government does not harshly punish these thugs who masquerade as Community Leaders, it will set a wrong precedent.
These so-called community leaders who are in reality thugs, thriving on extorting money from the infrastructure development projects in our communities, have proliferated and grown brazen. In almost every community, thugs masquerading as community leaders extort money from contractors, threatening them with damaging their equipment, disruptive bogus protests, and even death. These fake community leaders, turned into thugs, constitute a chunk of what is called the Construction Mafia, which thrives by bull-dozing awarding of tender contracts, subcontracts, and pure extortions.
To invade a school, hold the school management at ransom and disrupt the running of the school is a huge crime that must not be tolerated. This means we need maximum punishment from the government to deal with these thugs. These should include incarceration without the possibility of parole, for whatever maximum sentence the courts deem fit.
However, communities must unite in rejecting these leaders who are turned into thugs derailing community projects, and even threatening the education of our children for their personal benefit. These leaders thrive on the basis that some sections of people in communities support them. Especially taking advantage of the mass joblessness and poverty our people find themselves in, they often buy loyalty from some community members by giving them part-time jobs from the subcontracts they unduly get.
Corruption mafias must be clamped down with the ruthlessness they deserve to deter any community leader from venturing into extortion. Communities must disincentivise them by rejecting them as leaders and isolating them.
