Limpopo - Government officials were scrambling on Thursday night to find ways to quell the fiery protests in Vuwani, Limpopo, after 23 schools were torched or damaged this week.

A tribal administration office, four municipal trucks and a police trailer were also set alight during the protests.

The violent protests - sparked by the Municipal Demarcation Board’s decision to incorporate their villages into the new Malamulele Municipality - have left thousands of schoolchildren stranded.

Late on Thursday, high-ranking government officials descended on the area to try to ensure that no further schools and other public properties were destroyed.

State Security Minister David Mahlobo, Co-operative Governance Minister Des van Rooyen as well as Police Deputy Minister Maggie Sotyu were on the ministerial team that arrived in the community to seek solutions to the impasse.

A task team made up of education officials and Limpopo's Premier Stan Mathabatha also convened to try to find a solution. They also met community leaders in the neighbouring town of Thohoyandou.

But while government leaders were locked in meetings behind closed doors with community leaders, some villagers in Vuwani have taken to spending sleepless nights trying to protect their schools from rampaging mobs.

Community member Cassius Ngobeni said: “We heard that people are moving in the evening, burning schools. They tried to burn [it] with a petrol bomb but failed.”

Ngobeni is part of a group of Bungeni residents who have resolved to sleep at the community’s school gates because they want to protect their schools.

The destruction of schools comes just two weeks before pupils write their mid-term exams.

Earlier in the morning, dozens of schoolchildren wandered around in Masakoma and Mashau villages, contemplating what to do after their school records were reduced to ashes.

Roads were barricaded with branches and debris, while passing vehicles and riot police were pelted with stones.

People trying to get to work were left stranded as bus and taxi operators feared the wrath of protesters, while shops were closed as owners feared their businesses could be torched.

A pupil from Mashau Village in Livhuwani, Makhado, said she did not know how they would proceed with their education.

“Our school was burnt, we saw the flames. It hurts because we want to be educated. They should not prevent us from getting education,” she said.

Shops in the villages remained closed as owners feared they could lose their businesses or have their shops set alight. Two farmworkers told The Star that while it was an inconvenience to walk long distances to catch transport to work, they also felt the board was in the wrong for not consulting residents over the demarcation process.

“We don’t have a choice but to walk a long way. We cannot say they must stop protesting because we also need an explanation on why they did not consult us,” said farmworker Maria Munyai.

The protests started after community leaders informed residents that their court bid to overturn the decision to incorporate their villages into the planned Malamulele Municipality had been dismissed by the Polokwane High Court.

Residents want to remain in the Makhado Municipality in the Vhembe district.

Basic Education spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said it could cost up to R30 milliion “to reconstruct the schools from scratch”, but he said it was impossible to assess the damage as the situation was hostile.

He added that the department did not “have a standing budget for situations like this one”.

“It means we’ll have to steal from someone to fix this. There’s no plan yet,” he said. “Remember, if you want to go into that area, residents don’t allow it.”

On Thursday night, police were on high alert, patrolling the main roads leading to the villages and warning people not to enter.

President Jacob Zuma joined the chorus of people condemning the burning of the schools. He said the country was shocked by the scale of this “unjustifiable violence and destruction of schools”, which was on an unprecedented scale.

He explained that the violence at Vuwani was different from other service delivery protests, where people would burn down one school or erect barricades, not burn 17 schools.

“I condemn in the strongest terms the burning of 17 schools and other public facilities in the Vuwani area of Limpopo, reportedly over discontent regarding municipal demarcation,” Zuma told MPs during his reply to the debate on the Presidency’s budget.

He said he suspected that ulterior motives could be behind the torching of so many schools.

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