The gates remain locked at Vukuzenzele Combined School, after parents and pupils chased away 22 of the 27 teachers last month.
A SCHOOL dispute has stopped pupils at an Mpumalanga village getting lessons for nearly three weeks, and there is no sign that it is ending.
On Friday the gates at Vukuzenzele Combined School, at the farming town of Perdekop near Volksrust, were still locked. The school opened for the year on January 11 but an unresolved row from last year paralysed the place, and there were no lessons.
On January 13 the education department dissolved the school governing body. Four days later parents and pupils chased away 22 of the 27 teachers, accusing them of siding with a principal the villagers evicted last July.
Since then the five remaining teachers have had no pupils to teach, and have given up going to Vukuzenzele. Principal Moses Phungwayo – accused of mismanaging funds – spends each day reporting to the education office in Perdekop.
Last week education MEC Craig Padayachee called the community to a meeting in Nelspruit but they did not arrive, and this week community leaders said he should drive the 300km to see them. Perdekop police commissioner Inspector Moses Kubheka said on Friday no violence had been reported at the school.
“We don’t know how long it will be closed, but we will continue watching it,” he said.
Padayachee said the district education reported that classes resumed on last Thursday, after a senior official was sent to the school two weeks ago.
Told the gates were still locked, he said: “We will have find out what is happening.”
— African Eye News Service, February 1, 2000.