KwaZulu-Natal education MEC Kwazi Mshengu said while the reopening of schools in the province has largely gone “smoothly” there were a few challenges in the Umlazi district.

Speaking after a visit to Durban Girls' College, where he met with school officials after allegations of systemic racism, Mshengu said 104 schools had not reopened because of water and sanitation issues. He said he hoped these would be addressed during the week.

“We will continue to visit schools throughout this week. So far we are getting positive results. It was quite pleasing to see a number of teachers and pupils happy to be at school,” he said.

“We have really prepared our schools to be a safe environment for them and that has given confidence.”

Mshengu said there were challenges in Umlazi, where community members had blockaded “certain schools” because they were unhappy about the co-operatives appointed to clean the schools before the reopening.

“They are claiming that schools appointed one section in the township and left out other sections. These disruptions are really unnecessary. We are going to take a very firm stance,” said the MEC.

“I have said to the district director he must immediately dispatch police to those schools so that we can protect teaching and leaning, then we can deal with other matters. We will be intolerant to this.”

Provincial police spokesperson Col Thembeka Mbele said nothing had been reported to Umlazi police.