Durban - Parents at Kamalinee Primary in Isipingo have vowed to shut the school on Monday if a senior educator, who has been accused of sleeping in her car, does not leave the premises.
It is alleged that a “displaced principal”, who was sent to the school in January last year, spends her days sleeping in her car.
On Friday parents tried to remove the principal, but failed, when officials from the provincial education department intervened.
Donald Naidoo, the school’s governing body chairperson, said they did not understand why the educator was placed at the school because the school already had a principal.
He said since last year their plea with the department to remove the displaced principal had fallen on deaf ears.
Naidoo said a decision was taken by parents to remove the educator.
“The department sent an area circuit manager who explained that he was dealing with the matter with the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu),” he said.
However, the SGB said that should the educator return on Monday parents would shut down the school.
Last year SGB members wrote a memo to the department complaining that the educator had been sleeping in her vehicle in the school car park during school hours on numerous occasions.
According to the memo submitted to officials, she enters and leaves the school at her own will, is constantly on her cellphone, does not embark on any form of teaching or extra-curricular duties and spends most of the day sitting in the staff room.
Naidoo said frustrations grew after the department turned a blind eye.
“She draws a monthly salary of R40 000 for doing absolutely nothing. It is not fair on children, parents and taxpayers,” he said.
Naidoo said when the teacher was approached on Friday she told them she did not take orders from SGB members because she was employed by the department.
“She broke down and said she was under severe stress because she did not want to be at the school. But if she comes back tomorrow parents have vowed to block her from entering the school premises,” Naidoo said.
Numerous attempts to reach the education department were unsuccessful.