Drugs, Satanism and sex orgies: the new normal at Moshupa Snr. Sec.

Just how to deal with the wave of ongoing violence, drug trafficking gangs and wild sex orgies riddling Moshupa Senior Secondary School was top of the agenda at a meeting held at the village kgotla on Monday morning.

In recent months, the school has reported increased incidences of student violence that have resulted in both the student community and teachers living in fear. The latest incident, just three weeks ago, resulted in two critically injured students being rushed to hospital after being stabbed by a rival gang. The violence has reportedly even trickled to outside the school grounds too.

Kenewang Senthumule, 62, shared how just two weeks ago, while on her way to church, she fell victim to 10 Moshupa Senior students. “There were seven boys and three girls at the bus stop. After sharing pleasantries, one asked for P2.50 and when I told him I didn’t have it, they all converged on me and started hitting and clapping me. One even hit me on the head with a bottle; I ran for my life,” she narrated to a horrified crowd.

Concerned parents, teachers, police and tribal leaders both from Moshupa and Thamaga attended the meeting. Some even suggested that the Special Support Group (SSG) be deployed into the village to stem the wave of violence at the school, which has escalated beyond the local police officers’ ability to contain.
“Our biggest problem at the school is student fighting.

Some of these are mostly over drug territories, girls and insults traded via Facebook. Some students just come to school to eat and cause havoc,” Deputy School Head, Clyde Sibanda told the kgotla gathering, conceding that gang related problems have been an issue at the school for some time. “The problem is that after one side is attacked, the other retaliates and it becomes an endless cycle.

“The worst part is that the violence and fear perpetuated by the culprits is so deeply entrenched that no one has the guts to come forward with information, not even the victims,” he said. What is even more concerning according to Sibanda is that, parents tend to defend their children instead of helping to find solutions to the problem. “Some of the parents are even the ones giving these children drugs to sell at school,” Sibanda said.

Moshupa Senior Secondary School’s Guidance and Counselling teacher, Gladys Pitsonyana cited the use of Nyaope by the students as one of the causes of the increase in violence and negligence of school work. The gathering crowd at the Moshupa kgotla was shocked when she revealed what this Nyaope entailed – an intoxicating cocktail of dried human faeces, ARVs, Marijuana and Chill soft drink. 

“The drug can stay in their system for up to a week,” she revealed.  Along with Nyaope, some of the most commonly abused drugs by the students are marijuana, alcohol, sextacy (a concoction of Viagra and Ecstasy) that make students to engage in sex-marathons without getting tired. “We strongly urge parents to always monitor their children in terms of behaviour and whereabouts after school and on weekends. Students are having sex parties even during the week and engage in unsafe and unprotected sex,” she cautioned.

Students, who are also members of rival gangs, are also said to be actively involved in Satanism, self-torture with girls going as far as putting chillies in their private parts to make themselves ‘pain proof’ so that when corporal punishment is administered, it feels nothing compared to the pain they are used to. Gang members are sworn into secrecy and when arrested, will rather die than reveal identities of associates. The guidance teacher told of some girls who buy sperms from boys with the aim of impregnating themselves.

Parents, many of whom were left dismayed at the revelations, said they had done all they could and had simply lost control of their children. “This is all scary. We are very sad as parents and we are very unsettled, we don’t know if our children are safe,” said Pako Rantshibane. Others however, like Petrus Tlhobelo, feel parents must take responsibility for their children. “Parents, you stay with your children. You see that your child comes home with cell phones, with blood on his clothes, and he has not been sleeping at home. But what do you do?  You have to call the police and tell them ‘Here is my son. He’s currently sleeping, but I know that this boy has done something bad last night.’»

Others, like Mme Esther Moncho, suggested that the village builds a rehabilitation centre that will be staffed by trained specialists to counsel and treat these “corrupted souls.” In fact, she implored the village to adopt the ‘Motho le motho kgomo’ campaign to build the centre to save their children who have now become drug addicts and certainly a menace to the community.

Newly-arrived Moshupa Police Station Commander Superintendent Oteng Nganda, said it was proving difficult to rein in the gangs because they always seem to be one step ahead. “When we conduct surprise raids in search of drugs, we find that someone has already tipped them off. Even when we catch them, they are always tight-lipped about who their suppliers are,” he said. Nganda pleaded with parents to cooperate with the police and to desist from giving children a lot of money and buying them expensive phones.

Local pastor, Douglas Matshidiso opined that the problems at the school though manifesting in physical form were spiritual and thus should be tackled likewise.
“We need to pray really hard for our children and if it means inviting pastors to come to deliver them, let it be,” he stated.Kgosi Oscar Mosielele said the problem is much more to do with the laid back attitude adopted by modern-age parents who have become too liberal. The status quo, he said, was the perfect example of why dikgosi should be given more powers to instill the Setswana law on their subjects. “Ga o kake wa kgalemela Motswana ka sekgoa ga ya teng!” he quipped.