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Solly Msimanga interrupts busy schedule to hear pupils grievances

Mayor of Tshwane Solly Msimanga outside Pretoria High School for Girls over natural hair rules reportedly doesn’t allow their learners to have natural hair and they’ve had enough. Picture credit: Veli Nhlapo/Sowetan.
Mayor of Tshwane Solly Msimanga outside Pretoria High School for Girls over natural hair rules reportedly doesn’t allow their learners to have natural hair and they’ve had enough. Picture credit: Veli Nhlapo/Sowetan.

Newly-elected Tshwane executive mayor Solly Msimanga had to adjust his busy schedule to hear the grievances of Pretoria Girls High School pupils first hand.

This comes as pupils and parents are accusing the school of implementing racist policies that include black pupils allegedly being forced to use hair straighteners.

Joining the panel with Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi‚ Msimanga said the City would offer services that were needed to find solutions to the problem.

“MEC‚ I think our country has a sickness and the sickness is that we do not really act before situations get out of control. One thing that I want to pledge is that as the City of Tshwane we will open a door so that you can convene a dialogue of any kind where you can bring relevant stakeholders in how we deal with this situation.

“We are offering the facilities and maybe if needs be‚ bring in expertise from the University of South Africa to say how can we come up with a charter‚ a charter that will say once and for all we are addressing these issues and come up with a permanent solution‚” said Msimanga.

The mayor said parents should take collective responsibility for the situation at the school because “what role did we play to fail these girls“.

“We also need to establish what role did teachers play and what could have been done better to prevent this situation‚ how could you have communicated the challenges that were there‚” the mayor said.

He said the DA was totally in favour of freedom of expression‚ a right it could not allow to be trampled on.

 

Watch: Learners break down describing school hair discrimination

 

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