PUPILS at Boitumelong High School in Thembisa will attend classes in a yard infested with dagga plants.
Situated in Sedibeng Section, the school's backyard has dagga plants that cover the size of a soccer field.
According to the local councillor the plants have been growing at the school for a long time but they only realised that they were dagga plants in 2008.
When Sowetan visited the school on Sunday we found that some of the plants were about 2m tall. Young men and boys as young as 12 years old were picking the dagga.
We asked people passing by if they were aware that there was dagga at the school and the response was shocking. Everyone knew about the plants. Even a seven-year-old boy said: "I can show you what a dagga plant looks like. People smoke it every day in the yard."
One resident, who lives near the school, said: "In this section most people smoke dagga daily because they get it for free. It is a way of life for some of the youths around here. We are not happy about it but what can we do?"
Another resident said the previous principal allowed them to use the land to grow vegetables but they were later chased away.
"We used to grow vegetables in that space but we were chased away because the profit we made did not go into the school funds."
Sowetan has been writing articles about the dagga plantation for the past three years and there is still no permanent plan to get rid of the plants.
In 2008 and 2009 the Thembisa police uprooted and burnt plants worth more than R4million. Now it looks as if nothing had been done.
Councillor Vincent Hlatshwayo said uprooting the plants was "useless because the plants grew back during rainy seasons".
He said the space was supposed to be a soccer field.
The education department did not respond to questions sent to them on Monday.
- Sowetan
Situated in Sedibeng Section, the school's backyard has dagga plants that cover the size of a soccer field.
According to the local councillor the plants have been growing at the school for a long time but they only realised that they were dagga plants in 2008.
When Sowetan visited the school on Sunday we found that some of the plants were about 2m tall. Young men and boys as young as 12 years old were picking the dagga.
We asked people passing by if they were aware that there was dagga at the school and the response was shocking. Everyone knew about the plants. Even a seven-year-old boy said: "I can show you what a dagga plant looks like. People smoke it every day in the yard."
One resident, who lives near the school, said: "In this section most people smoke dagga daily because they get it for free. It is a way of life for some of the youths around here. We are not happy about it but what can we do?"Another resident said the previous principal allowed them to use the land to grow vegetables but they were later chased away.
"We used to grow vegetables in that space but we were chased away because the profit we made did not go into the school funds."
Sowetan has been writing articles about the dagga plantation for the past three years and there is still no permanent plan to get rid of the plants.
In 2008 and 2009 the Thembisa police uprooted and burnt plants worth more than R4million. Now it looks as if nothing had been done.
Councillor Vincent Hlatshwayo said uprooting the plants was "useless because the plants grew back during rainy seasons".
He said the space was supposed to be a soccer field.
The education department did not respond to questions sent to them on Monday.
- Sowetan
2 comments:
NEWSLETTERS
May/June 2006
Principal’s Desk
Academic Matters
In Grade 8 average achievement for the 1st term was about 65%.
In Grade 9 average achievement for the 1st term was about 71%
In Grade 10 average achievement for the 1st term was about 50%.
In Grade 11 average achievement was 62%.
In Grade 12 average achievement was 49%.
I wonder how it has been year on year with the perpetual sustainable field there over the years since...?
Interesting. I can comment that is is ridiculous to prevent anyone from growing their own food! I also know that weeding has to be a constant - I have the same with both Cannabis and Khakibos. and both plants provide great mulch for my garden. The question I ask is how come the teachers are not on top of this?? It only takes a few people to eradicate a few weeds. Clearly the community is accepting of this practice.
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