The newly appointed MEC for Education in Gauteng, Matome Chiloane, has raised concerns of safety in schools on Wednesday October,12, 2022 when he visited Faranani Primary school in Protean Glen following the murder of a parent who was fetching his child from school on Tuesday.
According to an eyewitness who was also there for a pickup, the deceased was making an intervention to rescue a scholar transport that was being hijacked. It is reported that the perpetrators shot the deceased in front of his child, and he died on the spot before they fled the scene.
Chiloane said the department is in great shock following the tragedy, and it shows that as a country we have a long way to go since criminals have become embolden, heartless and have lost a sense of value “The nerve that you can come to a school, and really hijack a vehicle with children inside show that there is lawlessness,” said Chiloane.
Chiloane said, they have dispatched a psycho-social unit at school to help the children deal with this traumatic incident, Also the province will bring serious interventions in place, including deploying police officers to ensure safety in schools.
The eyewitness continued to say that it seemed as if the perpetrators were targeting Avanzas as they also tried to stop her while she made an escape. She drives an Avanza, the same car model as the one the hijackers wanted to take.
Meanwhile, the family of the deceased, Eugene Tshililo, 34 is devastated by the tragedy. Sarah Tshililo, mother to the deceased, said her son was everything to her and his family. “I do not think that I will ever cope. I had put my trust in him to look after this family, he was literally the father of the family,” said Tshililo, who could hardly speak as she was weeping. The deceased was a self-employed man who was taking care of his family.
