Johannesburg - Roodepoort Primary School parents have given an ultimatum to the Gauteng Education Department to open the school on Tuesday – or they will take matters into their own hands.
The school was closed last month, following months of disruptions and violence, as some of the parents demanded that the principal step down.
The department then transferred pupils to Lufhereng Primary School. But not all the pupils have been reporting there.
On Monday, the Davidsonville Community Police Forum (CPF) demanded that Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi reopen the school on Tuesday.
CPF member Leonard Martin said claims that the problems at the school were racist were unfounded.
“It is about corruption, and that is where the issue should be maintained. The community would like to send a message to South Africa, and Gauteng in particular, that we have the right to call for accountability and correct evaluation of what happened. The community wishes in the strongest possible terms to remove the discourse of race,” he said.
The CPF also complained that coloured teachers who had served the school for years, and were qualified, had been overlooked for posts.
Another CPF member, Jerome Lottering said: “This marginalisation and purposeful social engineering by the ANC government needs to stop. We are all Africans and we also require the same kind of corrective interventions that is applied to blacks.”
Lottering then fired a salvo at the MEC: “I want to send a message to Lesufi, he must stop playing the race card. It is showing his level of immaturity and shows that he is a media person. We are not auditioning for Idols here. He is in a popularity contest, and that is not going to work here. Here we are dealing with people’s lives. This school needs to be opened tomorrow. He needs to understand that it is going to spread to our communities countrywide.”
The parents said they didn’t want to send their children to Lefhureng because of safety concerns.
“Someone can’t tell me that I must put my child in another school. It doesn’t work that way. Now my child has to be carted by bus to a different area and we weren’t consulted in terms of signing indemnity forms.
“What if something happens to my child? What if something happens to my child in that school? Will they take responsibility? What they did here was illegal, irregular. This school needs to be reopened immediately,” Lottering said.
On Monday, the children who were playing outside the school in their uniforms chanted “MEC, jou dief, kom maak oop die skool” (loosely translated as MEC, you thief, come open the school).
They were later taken to the Davidsonville recreation centre and library just before midday, where they listened to stories and played musical chairs.
Parent Christebell Pienaar said she took care of the pupils in the community hall until the teachers arrived just after 2pm.
“The teachers who do not go to Lufhereng report to the district office every day. When they finish, they come to the hall and teach the children.
“The teachers are doing a great job,” she said.
Last week, Lesufi appointed a mediation team that were supposed to conclude their task in 48 hours. The task team included Reverend Gift Moerane from the South African Council of Churches and representatives from the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.
On Monday, departmental spokeswoman Phumla Sekhonyane said: “The mediation team have finalised and submitted their report with recommendations, which should be effected by Friday.”
The Star