MANGAUNG, FREE STATE – In a stark reflection of escalating security challenges in educational institutions, the Free State Department of Education has confirmed that more than 800 Mangaung learners have been profiled as potential gang members. The department is mobilizing urgent interventions to prevent school-related gang violence from disrupting learning, warning that the crisis is evolving into a constitutional and human rights issue.
Department of Education spokesperson Howard Ndaba highlighted the severity of the situation, revealing a chilling incident where a live bullet was discovered in a pupil’s school bag. In response to the growing threat, the department has developed a comprehensive strategy centered on prevention and collaboration with law enforcement.
“As a result, we then developed a strategy to deal with this,” Ndaba explained. “One of the pillars of that strategy is to ensure that we are visible. It is to link our schools with the police station, to work together with police to ensure that there is prevention. Before any incident happens, we prevent it by making sure that police are visible in and around our schools.”
The crisis is affecting children at an alarmingly young age. Thabo Botsane, a community activist and former convict who served 18 years for armed robbery, warned that children as young as seven are being recruited into these syndicates. Botsane, who is dedicated to stopping the loss of innocent children to gang violence, noted that schools are dealing with various factions, including Maroma, BTKs, and groups of boys who adopt the personas of traditional initiates.
“We have Maroma, BTKs, and we have these ones who think they are coming from initiation school, and all of those are giving us a challenge,” Botsane stated. He explained that violence frequently erupts when some learners drop out or immediately after school hours, disrupting the community.
Compounding the issue is the alleged lack of cooperation from some parents. Members of various neighborhood watches report that parents are actively condoning their children’s criminal behavior.
Erican Lubbe, Chair of the Greater Mangaung Forum, expressed deep frustration over the lack of parental support. “The parents don’t come and help us assist with this gang violence,” Lubbe said. He pointed out a recurring legal hurdle: “We lock a lot of them up, but after three days the children withdraw the cases against each other. The only challenge is the parents go and fight at the police station.”
Community patrollers are struggling to maintain order in identified flashpoints. Lebogang Maketla, a patroller for Phelindaba and Rockland, noted that officers are doing their best to control the situation but are stretched thin across multiple hot spots.
Maketla identified the main road of Singono as a primary flashpoint, explaining that it is the designated meeting place where youths from Freedom Square and Tefland converge specifically to engage in violent clashes.
Cultural practices are also intersecting with the gang crisis. Ndaba pointed out that learners who undergo traditional initiation rites often return to school troubled and begin ostracizing boys who did not participate, falsely claiming to belong to exclusive gangs that refuse to interact with uninitiated boys. To combat this, the department is engaging with stakeholders from the traditional initiation sector.
“If there’s no safety in our schools, learning and teaching will not happen,” Ndaba emphasized.
To further bolster these efforts, the Department of Education is bringing in the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) department to join the fight against school gangsterism. Meanwhile, police have confirmed that they are deploying intelligence-driven gang suppression tactics alongside anti-gang educational programs to reclaim the safety of the region’s schools.
