WHAT was meant to be a smooth reopening of schools on Wednesday (January 14) turned ugly when parents of foreign learners, foreign residents of South Beach, and March-And-March protesters staged a stand-off at the gates of Addington Primary.

There was strong police visibility as CPF members and angry parents with placards swamped the front gate and nearby streets.
The conflict had long been brewing, after March-And-March had promised to intervene at the school, where there are claims that more foreign learners are enrolled, and South Africans are not considered.

The foreign parents argued that their children deserve to be enrolled because they have the right to be educated as much as any South African child, while South African parents feel that the school is unfair to prioritise foreign children over their own, despite their early applications.

“I have been to the school to apply for my child to do Grade One here since April last year. We have been waiting for a reply since then. We were told to check again in October, we did, and we were told to return on the first day of school, but we are told the school is full and no more children could be enrolled,” said one parent who resides in Point, 1km away from the school.

Parents of local learners who had applied to the school since April 2025 and were told to return later in the year were later informed that they could no longer be accommodated, as the school is “full”.

March-And-March first went to Addington Primary School on Tuesday, seeking a meeting with the principal and school management, but they said the police were called to disperse them. Again on Wednesday, they came to “speak” to the principal. After hours of waiting, the leadership of March-And-March was invited inside the school for a meeting with the principal, ward councillors and school management.

“Coming out of the meeting as a solution, it has been decided that local children who could not be enrolled, would be attended to by the Department of Education, and be enrolled in other neighbouring schools. It could be anytime moving forward,” said Ward 27 councillor Sibusiso Lushaba.

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