Cape Town – After locking the principal and circuit inspector in the toilets of the Solomon Qatyana Primary School in Lwandle in Strand, protesting parents and pupils at the school closed down the N2 in Strand.
On Tuesday, parents, pupils and teachers marched outside the school against overcrowding, dilapidated toilets, no proper school structure and no sports ground.
School governing body chairperson Phumeza Makhubela said that after Tuesday’s events at the school they sat down with the principal and the inspector to arrange a meeting with the provincial education department for Wednesday.
She said that when representatives of the department failed to arrive for the meeting they decided to protest to put their point across.
“We will close the school until such time the department meets with us.”
Parent Nosiphathi Tyhokolo said the children were learning under poor conditions. “We need a proper structure for our children because the containers the school is using at the moment are not conducive for schooling, especially on hot and cold days.”
A teacher, who did not want to be named, said the teachers shared toilets with the pupils and it was not fair for the children because they were not comfortable when a teacher was in the toilets with them.
Spokesperson for MEC of Education Jessica Shelver said the community disrupted schooling again on Thursday and held an education department official hostage for the second time in two days.
“Schooling came to a standstill when all except three teachers and learners left the school premises, according to our information. It was reported that they then joined a protest on the N2 highway.”
She said the protesters were demanding that the department build a new school earlier than the scheduled date of 2020.
“No amount of protesting will bring this date forward. This kind of behaviour is unacceptable. Unless teaching and learning is restored to normal immediately, the Western Cape Education Department will be laying criminal charges in terms of the South African Schools Act against any person who seeks to prevent learners and teachers from attending school.”
Shelver said the circuit manager had laid a charge with the police against the school governing board chairperson for holding him against his will with other protesters.
Police spokesperson Andre Traut confirmed that a group of schoolchildren blocked the N2 near Lwandle.
On Tuesday’s hostage taking, Traut said: “This office confirms that a case of kidnapping has been registered following an incident on Tuesday morning at a school in Lwandle where two adults were locked in the bathroom for a period of time.”
They had subsequently been freed and no one sustained injuries.
No one had been arrested yet and the circumstances were being investigated, Traut said.