A moment of happiness abruptly turned into misery for a man suspected of stealing feeding scheme food from a school.
The 31-year-old man was stopped in his tracks by members of the Langa Safety Patrol (LSP) on Friday 22 April around 05:00 while pushing a shopping trolley filled with groceries.
With all the local retailers closed, members of the patrol immediately thought something was amiss when they saw the man struggling with the loaded trolley. He was walking towards the Langa taxi rank from the direction of Siyabulela Primary School.
Upon close examination LSP members noticed that the trolley was, among others loaded with vegetables, rice and milk.
The man could not give a plausible answer when quizzed about his early morning shopping.
LSP chair Bandile Gcuwa said they initially followed the man after spotting him coming out of the school.
“We followed him and pretended as if we were people going to the taxi rank to catch taxis. We were not wearing our reflectors. We escorted him as he pushed his trolley. Then when he was about to pass the taxi rank we stopped him. To our surprise, when we checked the trolley as it was covered, we found groceries,” explained Gcuwa, adding that they were patrolling in groups.
He said the suspect eventually told them that he was asked by women who worked at the school’s kitchen to go and pick up the groceries. “We managed to trace the women and all five of them cook for children at the school. One of them is the suspect’s mother. He told us that his mother begged him to go and steal the groceries,” said Gcuwa.
According to Gcuwa, the incident is not the first.
“Zimasa Primary School has been robbed several times and we have managed to investigate and found the items that were stolen and brought them back to school,” he said, adding it was worrying to see residents stealing food meant for needy children.
Provincial Education department director for communication Bronagh Hammond confirmed the incident.
She said all the implicated employees were immediately suspended by the school governing body (SGB) and charges have been laid against them at the police station.
“A member of the community informed the school authorities of the alleged theft of goods. We would like to say a big thank you for alerting the school to the theft of the goods. This is an example of how the community can assist us in protecting our schools and its assets that are there to support their children,” said Hammond.
She said the goods that were in the trolley included bags of rice, milk, cabbages and carrots.
Despite the theft, Hammond stated that feeding continued at the school.
Langa station commander Col Deider Engelbercht said the suspect was arrested and a case of theft was opened.
“It was established that groceries went missing at Siyabulela Primary School. But at this stage it is not clear how they gained entry and currently no proof to link anyone else to the incident,” said Engelbercht.