Illegal raid: parents fuming
PARENTS and members of Effingham Heights Secondary School’s Governing Body (SGB) clashed on Monday night while trying to discuss a way forward after a recent illegal drug raid at the school.
The parents demanded answers on what transpired on January 24, when some children were allegedly stripped and assaulted by a group of men.
When the information was not forthcoming, the parents stormed out of the meeting at the school’s hall. The principal, Inderan Govender, was not present.
He has been placed on indefinite leave, while the Department of Education conducts investigations into the raid.
An official from the department, tasked with helping the parents find a solution, did not attend after injuring his leg.
The SGB chairperson Anesh Naidoo told parents they had established the raid had been illegal.
Explaining how the raid was allegedly planned, Naidoo said: “A CPF (community police forum) member and a newlyelected member of the SGB contacted the principal a day before the raid. They informed him they had information about drugs at the school. They were told by the principal to come to see him the next day when the raid was to be conducted.”
Naidoo said the SGB was not informed and had only become aware of the raid after it happened.
“Since the incident, the SGB member has resigned and his child has been transferred to another school.”
Naidoo said a few cigarettes, dagga, and a knife had been found on pupils. These were handed to the police.
Angry parents demanded that someone take accountability for the illegal raid. SGB member Clinton Smith accused his colleague, who had resigned, of being a coward and lambasted the Department of Education for not sending another representative.
A parent said: “Our children were hurt and have been left traumatised. It seems like no one sees the seriousness in this.”
Another parent said the principal needed to be fired.
“He cannot use strong-arm tactics against our children and then not turn up for these meetings. We want answers. We don’t mind raids because we believe drugs is a problem in schools, but you cannot be so forceful with pupils. There is a protocol to follow.”
The chairman of the Greenwood Park CPF, Rajiv Jaynath, said his deputy had acted in his own capacity as a concerned and active parent and not a member of the CPF.
In a statement issued to POST, he said: “If the CPF conducted the raid, SAPS would have been involved and definitely arrests would have been made. The principal opted for a less punitive approach rather than getting the pupils arrested.”
Jaynath described the pupils as having active imaginations.
“The very active imagination of these pupils resulted in accusations of violent assaults and water-boarding, scenes that you would see from an action movie, bearing in mind that the principal reiterated that none of his pupils be assaulted during the raid.”
He claimed the subsequent pandemonium was well orchestrated by a guilty few and resulted in a protest action by the pupils, “deflecting the actual reality of drugs and contraband being found on pupils”.
It has not yet been established who the other adults, who were part of the raid, are.