/ 13 May 2005

Sit-in at MECs offices over school lock-out

POLICEMEN were chased away on Tuesday when they tried to force open gates that had been welded shut at a rural school near Nelspruit in Mpumalanga.

Over 1 000 children have not attended class since last Monday after a sub-contractor locked them out in an effort to force the education department to honour an outstanding bill of R1,3 million.

The debt goes back two years for construction work done at Ndlaphu Primary School in Daantjie tribal trust.

The community is now supporting sub-contractor, Symeon Sibiya. Members of the school governing body and a body of small businesses staged a sit-in at the department’s offices on Tuesday to try resolve the issue.

They also sat-in at the offices of the department of public works. By 5pm no one had met them and they sent home for blankets, preparing to settle in for the night.

“We want to meet with the MECs and are prepared to sleep in the offices until we do,” said chairperson of the Mpumalanga United Business Organisation, Ronny Mashile.

He said they wanted to meet with both former and present education MECs, David Mabuza and Craig Padayachee, respectively.

They also want to meet with public works MEC, Steve Mabona and Premier Ndaweni Mahlangu.

They were not satisfied with a meeting with Mabona’s head of transport, Martin Mokonyama, education head Caiphus Mashaba and Captain Phindi Maseko of the KaNyamazane police station.

Education spokesman, Peter Maminza, said Padayachee would not be available in Nelspruit until Wednesday.

Public Works spokesman, David Nkambule, was unavailable for comment.

Some 50 parents have meanwhile approached chief of Daantjie tribal trust, Sicelo Nkosi, to ask that the school be closed until the department paid up.

The school governing body has also protested against the suspension of the school’s principal for not laying charges against the sub-contractor as the department instructed her to last week.

“If the department is going to suspend the principal, then they must close the school forever,” said chairman Thobile Simelane.

The department was forced to press charges against the sub-contractor itself, but the sub-contractor has not been arrested.

Police who tried to open the gates on Tuesday failed to take along an arrest warrant.

He has been charged with the illegal obstruction of learning and the unlawful closure of a public institution.

— African Eye News Service, May 24, 2000.