Byline: Kelebogile Masemola
24 March 2022
Gauteng Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi visited the families of two teachers, Dimakatso Kgatitsoe and Vumile Mkhize who were allegedly shot by one of their partners on Monday at Ga-Rankuwa.
Lesufi visited the grieving families on Thursday, 24 March 2022 at Tsunami Ga-Rankuwa and Winterveld Mabopane.
Speaking to the media outside of their homes, Lesufi expressed sadness at the loss of the two young teachers from Lekgalong Primary School in Ga-Rankuwa zone 1.
“The sector has been confronting these kinds of events for quite some time, you might be aware that last week we lost a learner in Tsakane and this week it’s the two educators that lost their lives.
“We have another educator that was shot dead by a police person as well.
“We find ourselves in this situation having to respond to questions of ‘why? why this sector’,” he said.
Lesufi called on law enforcement to tighten their controls.
“I’m of the strong view that there is a need to review both our plans, both our approaches and the manner in which we are protecting society.
“We can’t live in fear, we can’t feel that the protection of our law enforcement is not enough,” Lesufi said.
The death of the two women left both their families feeling dismayed.
“We are really hurt as a family, we are just hoping to be strengthened by God as people come in and out trying to comfort us but either than that not enough words I can say can explain how we are feeling as a family right now,” Mandla Kgatitsoe (Dimakatso’s brother) said.
“We are in complete disbelieve, we just buried her grandmother and we were just starting to heal from that, now Vumile has left us.
“We are having difficulty proceeding with funeral arrangements because we don’t have enough funds to transport her body from Gauteng to Ulundi (KZN) where she will be laid to rest,” Reggy Buthelezi (Vumile’s uncle) said.
Lesufi said the district needs to assist the family with making sure that Vumile’s body is transported to KZN so that funeral arrangements can proceed.
