Tempers flare at north school placement protest

Police had to step in when tempers flared on Monday morning when two groups of parents scuffled outside Laerskool Danie Malan in the north of Pretoria.

One group’s children were admitted to the school, while the others were protesting to have theirs placed at the school. The parents demonstrated outside the school from the early hours of the morning, and reportedly put chains on the gates to prevent access to the school. This group of parents said they wanted their children admitted to schools in the vicinity instead of ones that were far away, while the other parents questioned why their children’s schooling had to be interrupted.

As tensions rose among the two groups of parents, a scuffle broke out between two of the more vocal parents. The brief scuffle was broken up by police officers who were dispatched to the scene and other by-standing parents.

“All we want is for our children to be let into schools that are closer to where we stay instead of kilometres away in other neighbourhoods,” said parent Danny Sekwele.

“I applied on time for my children, but now she’s being denied the chance of going to this school.” Another parent, David Gwangwa, said they were frustrated over their children having to stay at home since schools reopened in February.

“What is especially frustrating is that we have schools here that are not accommodating our children because they are regarded as Afrikaans schools,” he said. “This is segregation.” Gwangwa said that while they were still trying to negotiate with schools in the area, they would close schools down if their pleas went unheard.

Another parent, whose child was admitted to the school, Johan van Zyl said he was “very disappointed about this whole story because now our children can’t go to school [today]”. He also questioned why the group of disgruntled parents opted to demonstrate at the school, instead of at the education department’s offices.

Last week, parents embarked on a similar demonstration at Hoërskool Akasia over the same issue. Negotiations between the school’s governing body and parent representatives were continuing. Gauteng education department spokesperson Steve Mabona said the department was aware of the disruption at the school.

“We have placed all learners in that area,” he said. “It is not true that there are some unplaced learners, especially in the Pretoria North area.

“It is unfortunate to find ourselves in such unwarranted disruptive situations. We continue to call upon parents not to disrupt schooling.”

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