Patensie Primary School was recently hit by vandalism and theft, yet again, with the security gate at the female learners’ bathroom, the copper pipe fittings and the tank water pump fittings all being stolen, which resulted in the school being closed for more than three days since there was no water.

As previously reported by the Kouga Express, in February this year, the copper pipes and fittings were stolen, which left the bathrooms of the learners and teachers without water for three days.

In yet another case of unfortunate events, Glowill Felix, head of department and chairperson of the building and grounds committee at the school, said that the security gate at the female learners’ bathroom was stolen on September 10 and the copper pipe fittings and the tank water pump fittings were stolen on September 17.

“The whole school was affected because the main waterline had to be shut down.

“The tanks and pumps that feed the toilets could not be used as their fittings were stolen as well,” said Felix.

Both incidents were reported at the Patensie police station, but unfortunately since there were no witnesses when the theft took place, the case was at a dead-end.

He said with permission from the Department of Education, they sent the learners, educators, and staff home at 10:00 on September 19 and the school continued to remain closed until September 22.

“It is a frustrating story that our school has to be vandalised and various items stolen like this,” said Felix.

“Hopefully we will be able to eradicate this evil soon.”

Fortunately, Rienette Colesky, CEO of the Gamtoos Irrigation Board, and her team were generous enough to arrange for the stolen copper pipe fittings to be replaced with plastic pipe fittings.

He said they sponsored some of the plastic pipe fittings, tools, expertise, and labour for one week.

Felix said the school added to the work done by the Gamtoos Irrigation Board by buying plastic pipes and fittings to the value of R1 500.

To further add to the good work they do for the school, when the school had a bee infestation in September, which resulted in the Grade R learners being sent home for three days, Colesky arranged for her husband, Marthiens Colesky, who is a bee farmer, to rid the school of the bees at no extra cost.

Apart from the vandalism and theft of their copper pipes, Felix said their LED lights had been stolen on multiple occasions.

Despite buying new LED lights earlier in the year and placing them much higher, in the hope that they would not be stolen, they were stolen yet again and had to be replaced.

Previously, Felix said the senior management team were considering purchasing cameras to be placed around the school’s building as an added security measure, which would cost the school approximately R40 000.

Unfortunately, he said they were not able to afford the cameras due to budget cuts.

“We are still planning to install the cameras but because of budget cuts to the school in this financial year we could not buy or install any cameras,” said Felix.

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