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SAPS officers outside Addington Primary School in Durban.
Lobby group March and March is continuing to protest outside Addington Primary School in Durban, demanding that the 40 flood-affected learners be placed at the school.
The protest continues despite a case of incitement to violence being investigated against the movement’s leader, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma.
The movement has been protesting since schools opened for the new academic year.
They are accusing the school of prioritizing children of foreign nationals over the South African.
According to the Department of Education, the school has reached its capacity and the 40 learners have been allocated to schools in other neighbourhoods.
However, parents say this is not practical as they can’t afford the transport costs to other schools.
One parent says, “We gave them all the supporting documents, but still we couldn’t find the space and they are saying children must be placed at Greyville Primary and for a parent taking a bus to Greyville, how are they gonna afford that and some of these children are as small as grade two or three. We want them in the nearest school, so this is a nearest school to them and that is why we are here.”
Another parent says, “The school doesn’t belong to the government or the principal of any political party and the school gives us terms that they will take so many children and we must take all foreigners. Out of more than 1 500, more than 900 children are foreigners, which means South African must be a minority in their own school?”
Related Video | Addington Primary – Tension erupts, police fire teargas to disperse crowd:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2arVsdFsrs
Meanwhile, Ngobese-Zuma says they have managed to get the learners inside the school premises.
She has threatened to take legal action should school management refuse to register them.
“We thought that let’s just call the community to donate and buy them a school uniform and put them in the school, it’s their democratic rights and we did that. We bought 26 uniforms and bags and we are just waiting for them to kick them out and we are just waiting for them whatever they want to do.”
Ngobese-Zuma adds: “But every single day, we will come and bring them here as they have a right to education. We didn’t talk to the management and they don’t know them and we just put them inside. If they take them out of the school, definitely we are going to file an interdict to force the school to take the children in.”
