THE Safer South Africa Foundation (SSAF) is making progress in teaching pupils about the dangers of crime.
The foundation highlights the importance of collective action in safeguarding children's safety at schools through the Communities and Justice Programme (CJP).
This is amid the high rise of rape, bullying and violence and social ills such as gangsterism spilling into schools.
SSAF said the programme has reached about 906 pupils from eight schools across seven provinces.
This achievement has boosted the initiative’s cumulative impact, which has touched over 41 000 pupils across 408 schools since its inception in 2012.
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The former national police commissioner and CEO of SSAF, Riah Phiyega, commended the leadership efforts and support from partners in the criminal justice cluster.
She said in the Eastern Cape, SSAF continues to work with schools in the Buffalo Flats, Duncan Village, Braelyn, and Scenery Park areas within the Buffalo City Metro Educational District.
“The schools are in impoverished communities where drug and alcohol abuse, as well as violence, are prevalent. Unfortunately, these social ills spill over into the schools.”
“In addition to these challenges, a cyberbullying trend is intensifying and requires urgent attention,” Phiyega said.
She said that the CJP educates pupils about the roles of various law enforcement practitioners, such as police, traffic officers, prosecutors, court officials, correctional services, human rights and financial literacy.
Speaking to Daily Sun, SSAF spokesman Godfrey Monene said this programme aims to uproot violence and ill behaviours at schools.
Godfrey said each group of kids go to a 12-month-long course where they are shown the dangers of crime.
"From being taken to prison and correction services, where they have heard from inmates firsthand how crime led them behind bars, to human rights commission," he said.
Kgomotso Mlambo, whose children were part of the programme, shared her journey, reflecting on the challenges she faced with her kids at Kelokitso Secondary School in Soweto.
"Even when they were wrong, they never apologised.
"I had almost given up on them because they were so disobedient and troublesome.
"Because of this programme, my children say 'mama, we are sorry' when they're wrong," she tearfully said.
Kgomotso said her children are now obedient.
"They clean their bedrooms without hesitation. They do their homework without being asked," she said.
