Pupils stranded in Prestea as GSBPL adopts apartheid system

The leadership of the youth group called Prestea Communicators for Development (PCD) in the Western Region has taken a swipe at Golden Star Bogoso Prestea Limited (GSBPL) for leaving school-going children of Golden Star Primary and Junior High School (JHS) stranded at Neil Stevenson Park in Prestea on Thursday, June 14, 2018.

The development, according to the group, followed management of GSBPL’s decision ordering drivers of the company not to transport the pupils from Golden Star Primary and JHS who had gathered at Neil Stevenson Park in Prestea to school at Bogoso.

A statement signed and issued by PCD and copied to Today in Accra over the weekend noted that this ‘frustrating’ development was because the company had currently ordered that all school children whose parents/guardians do not work with GSBPL should not be given the opportunity to join its buses to school at Bogoso and back.

The statement said, “This current “apartheid” development, which has been smuggled in, is unheard of, since Golden Star Primary and JHS kids have been using the buses of the GSBPL to school for the past ten years.

This latest development, according to the statement, was a direct tactics by GSBPL to deny the school children of Prestea quality education, and an attempt to continue to derail the developments of Prestea.

It said Prestea, is by far, is the ugliest town amongst the gold mining towns in the country.

“Our schools, hospitals, roads, source(s) of water are nothing to write home about, and now, our future leaders, are also going to be denied quality education, using the “apartheid strategy,” the statement lamented.

To this end, the statement called on the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mrs Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, and the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Mozart K. Owuh, to take urgent actions on what it described as “unpalatable development.”

Meanwhile, when contacted by Today via telephone on Saturday, June 16, 2018 Community Affairs Manager of GSBPL, Mr Robert Gyamfi, confirmed the story.

“You [referring to our reporter], why are you interested in following this story because we do not owe the school any bus. So you need not to follow up this story. We do not run a school,” Mr. Gyamfi told Today and hanged up his phone.

Meanwhile, speaking in an interview with Today, Divisional Chief of Prestea Heman Traditional Area, Nana Ntanboa Prah IV, has described the action by GSBPL as worrying and unacceptable,” saying the company should have considered the plight of the school children before taking that line of action.