Gauteng MEC Panyaza Lesufi (right) at Buyani Primary School, where the Principal was shot dead. Photo: News24
The principal of Buyani Primary School in Freetown just north of Orange Farm in the south of Johannesburg city died on Friday morning in a hail of bullets as he drove into the school premises. This was confirmed by the Gauteng Education Department, who said that some officials from the department had been dispatched to the school in the morning to ascertain what had exactly transpired.
Writing on Twitter, the MEC for education in Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi said, “just got information that a Finetown Primary School principal was shot dead inside the school premises moments ago. We are on our way to the school.” The message had been written at 8:28 am on Friday. Lesufi further called on law enforcement agents to work around the clock to ensure that the person responsible would be made to face the consequences of what they had done.
Ray Makhubele, the police spokesman said they had received the call about the shooting of the principal at 7:00 am on Friday and he went further to confirm that the principal had been shot several times while he was still in the car as he drove into the school premises. Makhubele further confirmed that a docket of murder had been opened and that the psycho-social unit of the police would be visiting the school to offer support to the teachers, educators, and pupils that had been affected by the incident.
Speaking at a later stage, the Gauteng education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi said that it appeared that the killing of the Buyani Primary School principal was a hit. “From the video footage it was quite clear that this was a hit, that someone was assigned to do what they have done,” said the MEC. He added that a couple of months previously, he had received an email from a group that calls itself “concerned people” who had raised concerns about the qualifications of the principal, how things were done at the school, and some other issues. He added that he had felt that the issues had been dealt with until they received the sad news of Friday morning. He reiterated his earlier call for the police to work diligently to ensure that the perpetrators of this heinous act be brought to book. “I had a brief discussion with the police and I appreciate their thoroughness to investigate this matter and their commitment to hunting down the killer or the person who hired the killer so that we don’t have these kinds of things happening in our schools,” he added.
