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Speaker 1: Seven oh two Drive. Let's focus our attention now, as

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Speaker 1: I said we would earlier on the community of Riverley

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Speaker 1: High School, which first had a destructive fire back in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, and then two blazers in less

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Speaker 1: than a year, the first of them overnight. It's done

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Speaker 1: immense damage physically to the building. I'm sure it has

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Speaker 1: caused significant unease and possibly trauma for learners, teachers, their parents,

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Speaker 1: in the community at large. So let's find out a

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Speaker 1: little bit more about what's happening in Riverly and specifically

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Speaker 1: at the school. And welcome to seven oh two Drive.

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Speaker 1: Keegan Everson, who's chairperson of the school governing body at

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Speaker 1: Rivery High. Mister Everson, welcome. We've spoken before, and again

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Speaker 1: it was at a very sad moment like this one.

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Speaker 1: I wish we didn't meet under these circumstances, but this

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Speaker 1: is what you are faced with. What is the extent

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Speaker 1: of the damage and crucially, what are the implications for

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Speaker 1: the next term of schooling and beyond.

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Speaker 2: John, so much for having me, and yes, certainly, I

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Speaker 2: mean just over a year ago we had the same conversation. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: we are totally devastated as.

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Speaker 3: The HGP, and I mean as a community.

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Speaker 2: At large, John just quickly, So what happened was last night,

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Speaker 2: I think it was just between ten to six ten

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Speaker 2: plus six last night. We've got a community group, an

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Speaker 2: emergency group. We saw the message on there that the

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Speaker 2: school's on fire. We all then rushed there.

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Speaker 3: We had community members go through.

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Speaker 2: We tried we found if you remember last year, it

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Speaker 2: was the third role, so the four rows at the

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Speaker 2: school with classrooms, so the third row was affected last year.

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Speaker 2: Now it's the second row, and we tried containing the fire.

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Speaker 3: When we got there. We managed to use the hoses

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Speaker 3: at the school.

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Speaker 2: We had some fire extinguishers and fortunately we managed to

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Speaker 2: save one section of the row, which has about say

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Speaker 2: eight clusoms. The classrooms that were damaged is a total

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Speaker 2: of seven. That includes the library. It also has some

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Speaker 2: rooms where we were storing some of our cleaning material

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Speaker 2: and some furniture as well, including some of the science

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Speaker 2: labs as well. So yeah, that's the extent seven classrooms

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Speaker 2: that were cutted. Fortunately, you know, nobody was injured in

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Speaker 2: the process.

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Speaker 1: Obviously, the huge question on the minds of community members

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Speaker 1: and certainly for those of us living beyond, but very

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Speaker 1: much concerned about what you're going through is do you

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Speaker 1: have any idea who's doing this and why?

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Speaker 2: So, John, what happened was last year we had a

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Speaker 2: few youngsters that was apprehended. They were in totally was

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Speaker 2: eleven youngsters. If you remember, they were all under the

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Speaker 2: age of fifteen. They were like eleven years old, twelve, thirteen.

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Speaker 2: What happened to us They were then taking two SAPs,

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Speaker 2: They got some counseling, and they were released in the

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Speaker 2: custody of their parents. At that point I actually objected

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Speaker 2: to it, and I said, you know, there needs to

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Speaker 2: be some sort of repercussions for their actions. Yeah, I mean, surely, yes,

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Speaker 2: they are young kids, but if we do not take

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Speaker 2: them to task, this might just happen again. And sadly,

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Speaker 2: according to eyewitnesses, they obviously saw some kids in the school.

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Speaker 2: There were some vandalism, vandalism happening just before the fire.

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Speaker 2: So at this point, they're still an investigation happening with STEPS.

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Speaker 2: So we do not have names for now, We don't

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Speaker 2: have you know, I can't divulge too much information, but

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Speaker 2: we also have some footage of kids just before the

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Speaker 2: school closing vandalizing the school. So definitely, what I can

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Speaker 2: say is that it's kids from the school or actually

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Speaker 2: is a.

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Speaker 3: Part of this.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's heartbreaking stuff. I was sort of going back

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Speaker 1: on some earlier coverage of the previous tragedy, mister Everson,

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Speaker 1: and I do recall somewhere and takings been given that

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Speaker 1: there would be more security and funds for that made

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Speaker 1: available for the school. Firstly, if I've remembered that correctly,

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Speaker 1: and you'll correct me if I haven't, But if I have,

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Speaker 1: did that ever happen? And if so, did it work

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Speaker 1: at least for a while.

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Speaker 2: Okay, So last year one of the challenges that we

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Speaker 2: had was we didn't have a care taker on the premises.

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Speaker 2: So since the last five year we actually then got

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Speaker 2: a care taker to live on the premises. That has

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Speaker 2: certainly helped to a certain extent. That we also then

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Speaker 2: expected some funds from the assistance rather from the department

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Speaker 2: with regards to security. We actually had security for about

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Speaker 2: a month or two or so, and there after they

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Speaker 2: were recalled. It was then upon us as the HGB

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Speaker 2: to raise some funds and we got some of our

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Speaker 2: local guys to assist. But John, I'm gonna be honest

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Speaker 2: with you, as I've mentioned last year, you know, our

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Speaker 2: community is is quite a dangerous community, if I can say,

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Speaker 2: besides the Zama Zambas, we've got a lot of gangsterism,

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Speaker 2: drugs and all of those things affecting us.

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Speaker 3: So the issue is guys are afraid to actually work

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Speaker 3: at the school.

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Speaker 2: So we had a few security to come in and

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Speaker 2: then some just would not report for duty.

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Speaker 3: You know. We we we reached.

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Speaker 2: Out to SAPs and asked them for assistance. Yes, they

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Speaker 2: also do come through at times, you know what your awardens,

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Speaker 2: but I think we we we need to have stricter

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Speaker 2: measures put in place. Let me just say this. One

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Speaker 2: of the loopholes is the boundary wall.

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Speaker 3: That we have out of school. There's there's there's quite a.

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Speaker 2: Few holes in our fences and this is where the

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Speaker 2: perpetrators actually you know, gain access.

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Speaker 3: So we don't have the funds.

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Speaker 2: It's a no paying school, you know, as the HGB,

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Speaker 2: we have to be raising funds and you can imagine

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Speaker 2: to put up a boundary wall is going to be

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Speaker 2: quite costly for us. So so so we've mentioned it,

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Speaker 2: you know, in an interview today at the MC that

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Speaker 2: the boundary wall should be you know, prioritized. And then

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Speaker 2: we also need better assistance with security and also the

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Speaker 2: lighting within the school. It's it's totally dark in the

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Speaker 2: evening and so you can imagine as a security to

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Speaker 2: patrol at the at the back section of the school

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Speaker 2: where most of the classrooms are burned. You know, it's

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Speaker 2: it's almost like a no go zone for them. So

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Speaker 2: so those are some of our challenges right.

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Speaker 1: Well, we we wish you and the Riverly community well

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Speaker 1: as you battle once again with this, with this massive

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Speaker 1: destruction of a crucial part of community life. Keegan Everson,

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Speaker 1: sub chairperson at Riverlely High School,