Durban — Basic Education Deputy Minister Dr Reginah Mhaule and KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Mbali Frazer have strongly condemned the torching of a school in the north of the province.
Kanye Kanye High School in Dumbe is believed to have been set alight by angry matric pupils after school management cancelled the matric dance, which was supposed to have taken place before the start of the exams.
Speaking to the Daily News during their visit to Ogwini High School in uMlazi to monitor the start of the matric exams, the officials slammed those who destroy public infrastructure when they have grievances. Mhaule said she had been made aware of the incident and the department strongly condemned the pupils or whoever set the school alight.
The deputy minister called on the public to protect schools. She added that the exams at the school were not affected by the incident because only two classrooms were torched.
Frazer called it thuggery but denied that pupils had torched the school. She said while her department was trying hard to ensure safety in schools, it was the communities themselves that should ensure schools were protected from thugs who wanted to derail the future of their children.
“Education is a societal matter; therefore, it is the communities themselves who must ensure the maximum protection of schools. As the department we can employ 10 or more guards in one school, but if communities themselves are not playing their role, vandalising of schools won’t stop.”
The incident was also condemned by the National Freedom Party, which immediately released a statement in which the party’s secretary-general, Canaan Mdletshe, called on the provincial government to provide security guards for schools, especially those in rural areas.
He also criticised the communities surrounding the school for failing to protect their own infrastructure.
Mdletshe called on local residents to realise and appreciate that whatever infrastructure the government provides – especially schools – belongs to them and they must protect and guard infrastructure. The party said it was unacceptable that a school could be set on fire simply because there was unhappiness over the cancellation or postponement of a matric dance.
“As the organisation, we want to see an urgent intervention from all the stakeholders, in particular the department and parents. We want to emphasise to the community at large to take up ownership of schools in their areas. The province has a massive backlog of classrooms following the July unrest and floods. And the damage caused would take years to fix. One classroom destroyed is one too many,” said the party.
A service delivery protest was reported in Impendle outside Pietermaritzburg earlier on Monday, but the provincial Education Department’s head Nkosinathi Ngcobo said police quickly attended to the matter and the exam there had started smoothly.
On readiness for exams, both the deputy minister and the MEC said it was all systems go as all the schools that were affected by the floods had been removed. The MEC said she was expecting no less than an 80% pass rate.
Daily News