A thief has been spotted on CCTV stealing a nursery that is used to help learners with their practicals.
The nursery, situated at Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum, is a collaboration between the museum and Intsika Yethu Foundation.
It had been used by learners from Lwandle and surrounding schools.
The footage shows the thief arriving at 03:30 on Tuesday morning 18 January, after he cut of the fence to gain entry. He then lifted the structure off the ground before vanishing with the plants.
Masa Soko, museum manager, said it took the culprit about half an hour to gain entry to the facility.
“The camera shows him lying flat on the ground while trying to cut the fence. It took him 30 minutes to gain entry and took a knife from his bag to cut the ropes and rip off the nursery canvas,” she said.
Soko said the culprit was wearing a white cap, a jacket and underneath the jacket he is wearing a white T-shirt.
“He is hiding his face, and in instances where his face shown it is not clear. But we could see this is an adult not a child. We will be working to ensure we clear his face so that police can effect an arrest,” she said.
Soko said this was sad as the nursery was helpful. It had indigenous plants which the museum used to teach Grade 6 learners and up as part of their educational programmes
Thando Fatyela, co-founder of Intsika Yethu Foundation, said one of the biggest enemies of progress within townships was vandalism and theft.
“The museum has recently opened its doors, two weeks back, after the festive season break.
“We were looking forward to work towards our year plan, the nursery structures that we have had was one of the significant structures for our educational programmes for the year,” he said.
“We are so sad to inform you that it has been stolen by the thieves, and we are currently following and tracking the perpetrators. If someone has seen or heard of any steel structure being stole within Lwandle, Nomzamo, Strand, Rusthoff, Casablanca and Asanda to contact them,” he said.