Kasselsvlei Comprehensive High School is in the heart of the Cape ganglands, but somehow it has managed to create a safe haven and gang-free future for many of its children.
Teachers believe their success in keeping children out of gangsterism is a no-tolerance policy, strict discipline, compulsory involvement in extracurricular activities and cooperation with post-matric skills-development organisations.
Pupils here come from gang-infested areas such as Belhar, Delft, Elsies River and Bellville South, but when gangsterism crops up it is quickly weeded out and antisocial behaviour is not tolerated.
Its peace, however, was hard-won and is thanks to the determination of pupils and staff — and a good deal of fortune.
As with all schools in gang-affected areas, tragedy is part of life.
In August, a 17-year-old Kasselsvlei pupil was struck a devastating blow when his 29-year-old brother, judo champion and would-be Olympian Preston Davids, was stabbed to death near the school.
But the institution itself is safe.
“We keep the kids busy. They don’t have time for these things. When the kid gets home after school at 5pm, they are tired. They need to change, wash, eat and do schoolwork. They don’t have time to get involved in gang activities,” said teacher Egshaan Joshua.
“We have pupils in our schools who are affiliate due to their circumstances. For the kids it’s easier to affiliate themselves. Due to the affiliation, some of them get sucked into the gang life, but for others it’s superficial. To walk safely to school, to the shops, to their homes, they affiliate to the gang in the area,” he said.
“Our kids are expected to behave like that on the street, but they don’t have to behave like that when they’re here. The difference between us and [other high schools in the community] is a different attitude on the school grounds.”
Joshua said children had tried to form gangs within the school, but these were quickly eradicated. Tragically, a pupil who tried to leave a school gang was stabbed outside the back gate.
“We realised he and his friends formed a new group at school. They were a gang. We had to identify them. We weeded them out. If you can’t rehabilitate a kid, you have to work them out. You keep the parent involved. You try to show the child it’s evil to be part of a gang, it’s not a smart thing to do these days,” said Joshua.
“When he broke away it was his own members who waited for him. Then it was blood in, blood out. To get out he had to bleed, they had to hurt him and punish him, and if he survives he’s allowed to leave. He took his punishment, they stabbed him. He got a huge fright.
“I was in court for that child. While we were trying to break them up they tried to threaten me, so I punished him. I was in trouble for that, I had to pay a fine. The father and mother came to my home and we sat and spoke, and I explained why I did that. He was academically talented, he’s an athlete, he’s also a rugby player in the school. For him to become involved in gang violence is a bad decision,” said Joshua.
“By the time that incident happened seven of those kids had been expelled. We had to explain that the kids were selling and using dagga on school grounds, they were distributors. We explained that we could transfer their kids to another school and put in a transfer recommendation. Most parents take that option because their kids are picking up too much trouble here. We don’t allow it.”
The school has had very few incidents over the past five years because of its ethos.
“Staff who don’t maintain discipline are also disciplined. The discipline is constant and it gets followed up weekly. We have a Saturday detention and we follow up with logbooks. Incidents are entered and, if criminal, the parents and the police get called in. When we open a case, there is a record of this,” he said.
The school has a strong focus on sport and produces top teams in rugby, boys’ and girls’ soccer, athletics and netball. It produced Springboks Quinton Daniels and Bolla Conradie.
“Extracurricular activities are crucial. We take kids into nature, we take them to work in the community, we take them to do clean-ups at the river. We try to get kids involved in outdoor activities,” said Joshua.
“The kids who don’t participate are either introverts or academically strong, and if they aren’t interested in sports then we try to get them involved in the church. We have a church on school grounds and the choir. They have to be part of something,” he said.
We take kids into nature, we take them to work in the community, we take them to do clean-ups at the river.
— Teacher Egshaan Joshua
For many pupils from Cape Town’s most broken communities, a matric certificate is their only chance of becoming something other than a gangster.
Teachers such as Joshua — and Jerome Steyn and Peter Hendricks, who were also interviewed by Sunday Times Daily for other articles in this series — have to juggle the priorities of the class with the needs of a few disruptive children.
Teachers in Cape Town’s poorest communities all go through the agony of watching pupils fall through the cracks of society and into the clutches of gangs.
But with the despair there is hope.
Organisations such as Ceasefire and Yiss have emerged in communities such as Hanover Park to offer practical skills training, love and understanding.
Roberto Stemmet runs Yiss from a building behind Crystal High School. Here he provides jobs to at-risk youngsters and gangsters.
“There are more than 200 matriculants from the three high schools around us who will soon have nothing to do. These are kids who came through guns and bullets for 12 years. They are sitting in no-man’s land. There are no opportunities for them. We will take as many of them as possible.
“We teach them hairdressing, beauty and how to become barbers. The other skill set is hospitality, barista training, chef courses and baking,” said Stemmet.
Ceasefire also runs a vocational training college and has helped many young people out of a life of gangsterism. But before any training can take place these children need to be taught self-worth.
“We have to get them to work on their image first to give them self-confidence,” said Stemmet.
Western Cape education MEC Debbie Schaefer agrees.
“It’s a horrible environment and we do often find that schools are safe havens in those communities; but people still have to get to and from the schools, and that’s often where we find the biggest problems. They get attacked on the way there [to school],” she said.
“It’s not a one-department issue, it’s a whole-of-government issue. It starts with society and the reason for the violence,” said Schaefer.
“We are busy implementing a mindset-change programme to instil a growth mindset for the children. A lot of them don’t think they are able to do things they are able to do because many of them are told they can’t do things or they live in a poor community so they don’t have any hope.”
Sometimes the teachers have to tell their children to duck while gangsters are busy shooting across the classrooms.
— Western Cape education MEC Debbie Schaefer
Her department has lost about a third of its infrastructure budget due to Covid-19-related expenses and cost cutting by national government. Burnt-out teachers also need encouragement, but budget cuts mean initiatives like such as the department’s annual teacher awards and matric awards have been dumped.
“We are now being forced into a situation where either you have a teacher for another half-year or you have an awards ceremony. It’s not a nice choice to have to make. Acknowledgment of our teachers is crucial and we do try to acknowledge them where we can,” said Schaefer.
“We are trying to work on violence prevention, but when we have violence and gangs shooting all over the show and nothing happens, it really makes it very difficult for educators to deal with that.
“Of course, it affects our teachers. Sometimes they have to tell their children to duck while gangsters are busy shooting across the classrooms. They just happen to be in the way. They’re not shooting at the children, they’re just busy having a gang fight outside,” said Schaefer.
“It’s not a way to live and it’s not conducive to education, but we’re doing everything possible.”
