Education Minister Naledi Pandor has called for a meeting to discuss the effects of the public-sector strike as well as recovery plans with provincial education minister.
Spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele said the special meeting of the council of education ministers would take place in Johannesburg. ”It will be to take stock of the impact of the strike and to plan what needs to be done to recover time that has been lost.”
The meeting comes after education heads of departments met on Thursday.
The education sector has been among the worst hit by the strike, which started on June 1.
The Sunday Times reported that high-school pupils disrupted a Youth Day speech by President Thabo Mbeki in East London on Saturday, demanding that he end the strike, which has prevented them from writing exams.
As Mbeki’s bodyguards and police moved in, the group of about 20 youths sang in isiXhosa: ”Silwela amalungelo ethu [We are fighting for our human rights].”
The group also ripped up Youth Day T-shirts in protest, and police forcibly evicted two Congress of South African Students (Cosas) members from the stadium, the report said.
One of them, Cosas executive member in the Nelson Mandela metro Thulani Songwiqi, said afterwards: ”We were only trying to make our voices heard.”
Cosas national leader Anthonio Carrels condemned the incident, the newspaper said. ”As much as we are all concerned about how pupils are being affected by the strike, it was out of order to disrupt the celebrations.” — Sapa