Pretoria - The Department of Education will act on concerning findings relating to issues of racial discrimination, inadequate governance and leadership unearthed at Laerskool Theresapark.
MEC for Education Panyaza Lesufi told parents during a virtual meeting where investigators presented a report on allegations of maladministration at the school where principal Dorothy Mabaso was carried out of her office by some angry parents.
Pretoria News was at the scene in May and witnessed some angry parents who gathered at the school demanding that the principal vacate her post after they said she allegedly ran the school ruling by a whip and scared parents and educators who opposed her ways.
The department subsequently condemned the conduct of the parents, which left the principal injured and possibly exposed pupils to behaviour they should not have witnessed, before appointing Guardian Forensic Services and Mdlulwa Nkuhlu Attorneys to carry out investigations.
At the height of the tension, the parents accused the school principal of bullying teachers to the extent that they would quit their posts. Investigators found that all the white educators who left, blamed their exit on the principal and how she treated educators. None of the black educators attached their resignation to the principal.
In fact, on the day that Mabaso was carried out of her office by her chair, some teachers had a heated exchange with the group of parents as they confronted them and told them to vacate the school premises as they were disturbing their teaching because pupils could not pay attention.
Investigations found that there was racial tension at the school allegedly emanating from white and black pupils being treated differently - something Lesufi said he did not take to kindly.
It was established that there were white and black classes and that the School Management Team which consisted of an all-white team of educators allegedly resisted transformation and were only teaching the white classes.
Investigators found that black educators earned less than white educators and that there were also claims that black educators were being threatened as if they were not equally qualified to do their work.
According to the department's acting chief risk officer William Makgabo it was discovered that the school had a second bank account which was not authorised by the department as per regulations.
It was also found that the School Governing Body appointed service providers with links to some of its members without declaring a conflict of interest nor stepping down from their positions from the governing bodies after being implicated. There were also transactions linked to staff members.
Makgobo said Lesufi was advised to open criminal cases relating to illegal procurement as corrective action should be taken against members involved in illegal action that benefited either themselves or companies related to close family members.
Lesufi said: "There is an understanding that there were lots of wrong things that were happening to our school. One obviously is the issue of governance. There are serious limitations and gaps. Two is the issue of management through the school management team (whereby) there are things that are completely unacceptable. Three is the leadership of the school through the principal. Lastly, something I do not take kindly to, which is the matters of racism and discrimination against learners.
"Those are four things we have to attend to and we will attend to them. I want to assure you that we cannot request people to investigate or assist us to find wrong things and then leave the report unattended."
Lesufi said they would first give all the implicated people an opportunity to respond.
Pretoria News