{"id":5432,"date":"2021-07-27T09:32:31","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T07:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/disabilityconnect.co.za\/?p=5432"},"modified":"2021-07-27T09:32:31","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T07:32:31","slug":"the-aftermath-of-looting-and-unrest-for-special-needs-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/27\/the-aftermath-of-looting-and-unrest-for-special-needs-school\/","title":{"rendered":"The aftermath of looting and unrest for special needs school"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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At least 130 schools in KwaZulu-Natal were looted and vandalised during the recent unrest. Among the schools that lost everything was Golden Steps special needs school<\/strong> in Verulam, north of Durban. The school was completely ransacked, with looters taking everything from food and appliances to specialised computers and TVs designed to assist children with disabilities<\/strong>. The principal says over 90% of learners came from very poor homes and relied on the hot meals they got at school. This is no longer possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey took everything. All of the food, dishes, televisions and computers that were donated to the school were all stolen,\u201d says a tearful Anesh Singh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is the head of Golden Steps public school for children with intellectual and physical disabilities in Verulam, north of Durban. The school was among 130 educational facilities in the province that were vandalised and looted recently.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Golden Steps School for the Disabled was established in 1979 in Ndwedwe near Verulam, KwaZulu \u2013 Natal<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Singh said that the school\u2019s 217 learners enrolled for 2021 would have nowhere to go should schools reopen, which they have. He said most of the learners come from very poor households and often rely on the school for hot meals and transport daily. This is no longer possible because all of the school\u2019s sponsored appliances and food were ransacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expensive computers with software to assist non-verbal learners are also gone. \u201cThere were two brand new TVs still in boxes that I recently acquired from Samsung for our learners, worth over R45,000 each, that are gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The school recently received a new bus from the Department of Education which was vandalised<\/strong> as well as other buses on the premises. \u201cThe fuel was extracted and parts of the bus were stolen and damaged,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a very emotional time for the staff and learners as the unrest has crippled the culture of learning and teaching at our school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singh, who spoke proudly of his school and its accolades, said that Golden Steps has been an integral part of the community. \u201cSome community members are going in search of the looted items because the people who did this are thugs and they deserve to be arrested. Why steal from a school that helps the community? We would greatly appreciate any form of assistance,\u201d said Singh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu visited Bavumile Primary School and Mzwamandla Secondary Schools in Umlazi District to assess the damage caused by the unrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Equal Education (EE) has condemned the destruction of schools. \u201cWe plead with the community, parents and religious leaders to try by all means to protect schools in this difficult time,\u201d said EE in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe destruction comes at a time when schools are preparing to safely reopen their gates to learners in a few days after the July school holiday was extended to curb the spread of Covid-19 during the third wave. Many learners will be left stranded and this will [deepen] the inequalities highlighted by the pandemic,\u201d said EE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least 130 schools in KwaZulu-Natal were looted and vandalised during the recent unrest. Among the schools that lost everything was Golden Steps special needs school in Verulam, north of Durban. The school was completely ransacked, with looters taking everything from food and appliances to specialised computers and TVs designed to assist children with disabilities. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-focus","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.disabilityconnectexpo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}