Daniel Rass, Portland
Your Plainsman article “ Schools caught in crossfire” on February 13 has reference.
Let me start off by saying ALL lives should be valued, and its value should not be determined by politicians or officials.
A few weeks ago there was a spike in gang-related killings in Mitchell’s Plain and the Western Cape politicians were quick to put the blame for lack of resources and manpower on the national government.
No rewards were posted for the innocent people caught in the crossfire, or being at the wrong place,however, when a few days later two City officers were killed a reward was posted.
The question is: are all lives not valued by the politicians? From this it’s clearly not.
Now in your Plainsman of February 13 everybody connected with education in our province seems to take responsibility and not blame national government when there are shootings and stabbings in our Mitchell’s Plain schools.
The question is why the double standards, either it’s political opportunism or because the matric results in this province is one of the highest and should they blame national government for the shootings and stabbings,then they must also credit national government with the high matric pass rate.
Secondly, I challenge the Plainsman to visit all our schools – from primary to high schools in Mitchell’s Plain, then do a similar visit to all the schools in the so-called white areas and compare the playgrounds in the different areas and report your findings in the Plainsman.
All I’m going to say for now is that the school playgrounds of our Mitchell’s Plain schools is 99% not conducive to play on, never mind the hundreds of schoolchildren not yet being placed in schools as I write. What future do these kids have (gangsters?)
Thereafter you can engage with our provincial politicians of the departments of community safety and education, and find out from them why when it comes to safety and security they blame national government, but when it comes to education they don’t blame national government.
And by your report back I and many others might be properly informed.
