Dagga plants in school's backyard
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.
BabyBear12
"He said the space was supposed to be a soccer field."... SO WHERE IS THE FIELD INSTAED OF dagga plants, on school grounds nogal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Report Abuse
Tigeress
I can spot a dagga tree b4 it even come to 17cm bt ppl could not see it at what 2m mxm madness the whole community is smoking it ba sheba ka yonaReport Abuse
meleko
you see,le a makatsa tota batho ba SA,how can a councillor say go useless go kumula ditlhare tsa matekwane since they will grow back again.Eish that councillor ke sematla but le sone sematla se better ke mopakwana,does he have interests of the community at heart or o ja something from those plants.Comeon councillor,save the community or else ba tla felela ba peka botlhe like the rastafarians,shu!matekwane mo sgela then mokhanselara o gana a ntshiwa,so ke play gorund ya matekwane.No wonder bana ba ya sgela ba shusha bo hunters dry,ga ba batle go salela ko morago coz others ba ja matekwane for free.Report Abuse
Lamza08
Now thats what I call a HIGH SCHOOL........This is why the past rate will never reach 80%Report Abuse
lumomo
i suppose it is a hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh school. HIgh on MARIJUANA. Sounds cools.On a serious note. it cant be hard to get rid of the Ganja permanently. They must just get the experts to do it. What do the police know about uprooting trees? and again, as the police uproot the trees, the criminals do more crime, as if they do less crime when the police r doing police duties.come to think of it, the police may be permanently intoxicated from inhaling the HOLY HERB while burning the previous batchReport Abuse
kudumeka
The only solution is to let people plant vegetables on that field to avoid dagga from growing again. If not it will grow again during rainy season pupils will help themselves. the councillor is also benefiting by the look of things here.Report Abuse
LEJAZZ
my friend was arrested on Monday because police found three dagga plats behind her backyard and the funny thing is that she did not know about those plants.As for this story I think the principal had a hand in the plantation of dagga.
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DOGUNIT
this is madness the whole community is hooked on weed,i arrest my caseReport Abuse