Last Updated on December 5, 2019
A school in Eastern South Africa was set ablaze and partially destroyed after pupils received poor end of year reports.
Chaos erupted when students had received their disappointing grades–and the school and its staff were the target of the students’ anger.
Thankfully, nobody was harmed during the chaos and resultant fire.
The provincial department of education said that emergency services were called out to a fire at Zwelinjani Secondary school in Zwelibomvu, Pinetown, west of Durban in the KwaZulu Natal region.
“There are claims that the fire started after chaos erupted when school reports were issued to learners who felt that the results they had obtained were not satisfactory. The learners allegedly accused teachers of giving them bad marks,” said the department spokesperson, Kwazi Mthethwa, as reported by Times Live.
“We appeal to all school pupils not to resort to violence, crime or vandalism against public property when addressing their concerns,” said education MEC Kwazi Mshengu.
News 24 reported that Kwazi Mthethwa continued:
“Emergency teams have responded to fire incidents at the school. Buildings that were destroyed by fire include the office of the school principal, the school kitchen and staff room.”
Mthethwa said district officials had reported that that “no one was injured in the fire, but property was destroyed badly”.
“We wish to also emphasise that we will not reward anarchy by building another school when it was destroyed deliberately.”
According to Times Live, police are still investigating the incident which has drawn international attention.
No arrests have been made and officials are trying to ascertain the cause of the fire.
