A Primary School Deputy Head from Letlhakane was left with egg on his face this Monday after Police arrested him for stealing food items.
Mokane Deputy Headteacher, Michael Kebopetswe, along with a kitchen employee and her boyfriend were caught in possession of foodstuffs suspected to have been stolen from the school’s kitchen.
According to the Letlhakane Police Station Commander, Michael Maphephu, the cops received a tip-off last Friday but failed to arrest the culprits.
“We received information about the disappearing food at the school kitchen. On Monday this week, we pounced on a driver who we later learned was a boyfriend to one of the kitchen hands. It appears he was sent by his girlfriend to drop some of the stolen foodstuffs at the Deputy Head’s house,” revealed Maphephu in an interview with The Voice.
The Superintendent said the driver was caught with a load of food items that included: cartons of milk, bags of 12.5kg sugar, mealie meal, peanut butter, and rooibos tea.
“It appears when the Deputy School Head heard about the arrest of the others, he went and dumped the cooking oil at a nearby bush. He, however, later led the police to where he had dumped the oil,” continued the top cop.
Maphephu further disclosed the trio has been slapped with a charge of stealing by a person working in the public service.
They are yet to appear in court as Police Officers continue to gather more evidence.
Meanwhile, a teacher at Mokane Primary claimed theft of food at the school kitchen has been rife for ‘many years’.
“There’s a syndicate that involves kitchen hands, school and council staff. We’ve always suspected that employees of security companies engaged to guard the school premises were also somehow involved because this has been going on for some time,” declared the teacher, who only agreed to talk on condition of anonymity.
However, The Voice has been reliably informed that Sentinel Security Services (PTY) LTD, which was appointed on 1st September 2019, was instrumental in the arrest of the trio.
“It was the security officers who alerted the police after observing suspicious activity at the kitchen,” said the teacher.
The Voice reached out to Chief Education Officer (CEO) for Boteti Sub-region, Milidzani Nduna who was yet to respond to questions sent to her at the time of going to press.