Durban - The Department of Education has appealed to two feuding Zululand families to allow their children to write matric and has promised security at exam venues to protect them.
An extramarital affair is said to be behind the conflict which has pitted the neighbouring Ximba and Danisa families of Msinga against each other, leaving four dead and forcing five matric pupils into hiding, with parents fearing for their sons’ lives.
Two pupils, with links to the families, are also caught up in the conflict, but reported for their exams this week.
All seven attend four Msinga schools: Bhambatha, KwaZenzele, Macingwane and Mjonge high schools.
The department insisted on Thursday that the conflict had not affected other pupils writing exams at the schools, only the pupils linked to rival families, who are close neighbours.
However when the Daily News visited two of the schools on Thursday with a fact-finding delegation led by Education MEC, Mthandeni Dlungwane, it was clear that pupils and teachers were gripped by fear.
Dlungwane said the two pupils who sat for their English exam on Wednesday were under police watch at the exam venue and were escorted home.
He said the department would allow the five in hiding to write their exams at their nearest exam venue and would put security precautions in place to ensure they were not attacked.
A department team led by Dr Barney Mthembu, the provincial exams head, had been tasked with negotiating with the parents to allow the five to write their exams.
However this could prove difficult.
“It is not easy to communicate with the affected parents of the learners, because they have been taken into hiding,” said Dlungwane.
Matrics wrote mathematics or mathematics literacy on Thursday.
KZN Education head, Enoch Nzama, said the department would try to arrange for the affected pupils complete their exams during the supplementary exams in March.
He said five of the seven had completed their school-based assessments and had sat for exams in March, June and September.
Two fled, missing the trials exams in September, but Nzama said this did not mean the door was closed to them to complete their matric in March.
He said department policy allowed pupils to write during the supplementary exam period if the circumstances were “beyond their control” and “not of their making”.
Nomarashiya Caluza, KZN secretary of teachers’ union Sadtu, said: “Education remains a pivotal societal matter and as such we expect our communities to protect our schools, our teachers and learners and see to it that all schools become centres of excellence.”
Although the department on Thursday moved to allay fears that the tensions had only affected the seven, boys in the lower grades from the two families also appear to have been caught up in the feud.
The feud between the neighbouring families, who live a stone’s throw away from the KwaZenzele High School, had also spread to two other families.
Several locals and pupils said the feud had stemmed from an affair involving one of the neighbours’ wives, resulting in a blood-drenched love triangle.
The sources said gunshots were heard during school hours one day in September, when the attacks first began.
Both men involved in the love triangle were killed recently, while the woman involved had apparently fled to Pietermaritzburg, according to the community.
The homes of both families had been abandoned.
A primary school teacher related to the Danisas had fled Msinga, and had been in hiding with his brother in the Ladysmith area, before being shot dead along with his brother, two weekends ago.
Police spokeswoman, Colonel Thembeka Mbhele, confirmed the four deaths - all by gunfire - which took place between September 4 and October 4. No arrests had been made for any of the killings, including an attempted murder case against a man linked to the Danisa family.
The police said the motive was “unknown” but confirmed knowledge of tensions between the two families.
Mbhele said it had started with the death of Ngabusasho Ximba, 33, who was shot dead by a known suspect while sitting in a microbus on September 4.
“The suspect fled the area. A case of murder was opened at Umsinga and investigations started. Efforts to trace him at his residence and other areas were in vain,” she said.
Police are still on the hunt for the gunman.
On September 26, Khipheyalakhe Mwandla - believed to be close to the Danisa family - was shot at with a rifle, but missed, by a member of the Ximba family.
“The police tried several times to trace the suspect but it was discovered that he fled the area immediately after the incident,” said Mbhele.
A case of attempted murder is being investigated by the police and the alleged shooter is in hiding.
And on October 4, three men from the Danisa family were killed on the same day - 100km apart.
“Buhlebuyeza Danisa, 30, was fatally shot at Esihlabeni area. The case was opened at Muden police station and no arrest has been made,” she said.
Police were still investigating and said the suspect was unknown.
In Limehill, near Ladysmith, where a Msinga primary school teacher had fled since the killings started, he was found at his brother’s house and killed.
The Danisa siblings, Lungisani, 35, and Nsikelelo, 32, were shot dead at their Limehill home where the teacher had been in hiding.
The suspects are unknown in the October 4 Danisa family killings.
Dlungwane said enhanced security at exam venues and police escorts for the affected pupils had been offered to the parents to ensure the pupils wrote some of their remaining exams.
The Department of Community Safety and Liaison spokesman, Sipho Khumalo, said they would meet the local iNduna and community at the weekend.
Daily News