Pretoria - Equal Education (EE) wants the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) to disinvest from Curro Holdings and use the money to fund public schools.
Curro Holdings, which has about 41 private schools across the country, has recently been embroiled in controversy regarding the segregation of pupils according to race.
In 2012, Curro, the PIC and Old Mutual Investment Group of South Africa – through the Schools Fund – joined forces to raise R440 million in capital for the development of a group of low-fee Curro schools, known as Meridian, to accommodate about 20 000 pupils.
On Tuesday, EE members marched to PIC to demand that it disinvest from the group as public education is being starved of funds that are diverted to private education.
EE Gauteng co-head Tshepo Motsepe said a lot of public schools could be greatly improved by the money invested in Curro.
“We need to ask if Curro is meeting the needs of the country. The answer is no. The government is funding private education and when it comes to public schools they claim poverty.
“We will stage numerous sit-ins in their offices if our demands are not listened to. We acknowledge that private schools have the right to exist in this country but they should fund themselves,” Motsepe said.
“The schools should not be funded by teachers’ and workers’ pension funds. Private individuals must fund their own private schools, because they are running them as businesses. Normally Cosatu should be taking up this fight but they have problems so we’ll do it.”
Motsepe threatened that if the PIC fails to disinvest from Curro Holdings, EE’s 5 000 members would stage a sit-in at the PIC’s Menlo Park offices.
Following the furore at Curro, Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi announced he had instituted an inquiry to investigate racism at private and independent schools. He is also going to have a meeting with heads of all private schools soon.
Motsepe said: “The inquiry should not just be about racism in the schools but also the funding models,” he said.
Alana Bailey, deputy chief executive of AfriForum, said they were against an inquiry because Lesufi wanted to advance political agendas. “The government is increasing interference in private institu-tions. It bodes ill for democracy and private property rights.”
Defending Curro not having black teachers, Bailey said: “To prescribe the racial compilation of teachers in a specific school, and to declare good teachers should not leave townships, indicate a lack of understanding of individuals’ rights and interference with regulated processes to enforce a racial agenda.”
Pretoria News