Education MEC Matome Chiloane pleaded with parents and organisations not to disrupt the placement of pupils and opening of schools.
EFF members protested outside Laerskool Danie Malan in Pretoria North after authorities failed to place a number of pupils at the school for the 2023 academic year.
They accused the school of racism and failing to find a permanent solution to the problem.
Chiloane said the department had requested law enforcement agencies to assist.
“You are disrupting an opportunity for work to be done. We are appealing to the civil organisations to allow us to do our work, don’t just disrupt because you want attention. There are ways that you can find attention without necessarily disrupting our work,” said Chiloane.
“Even now some political parties have entered the space, saying they are there to defend parents’ rights. If you disrupt other children and parents, then you are violating those very same rights that you claim you are defending.”
He said instead of fighting, political parties should help the department.
“There are areas where this has tended to become racial. It can't be that in 2023 we are dealing with racism.”
TimesLIVE
Motshekga: Registration problems in Gauteng 'didn't come with the online admissions system'
Image: Freddy Mavunda © Business Day
Basic education minister Angie Motshekga has poured cold water on claims that registration problems in Gauteng came with the online admissions system.
More than 1,000 pupils in Gauteng are yet to be placed for the 2023 academic year. Many pupils were not placed at schools within walking distance of their homes.
Speaking to media during her visit to Cosmo City Primary School in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Motshekga said placement challenges in the province had always been there.
She said the online admissions system helped to identify schools facing the problem.
“I know the problem of admissions, it didn’t come with the online applications. Even when I was the MEC [of education in Gauteng] we used to have problems in placing children.
“What was worse, there was no ICT [information and communications technology] programme to tell us where are the spaces and learners. I used to work on hearsay. So this online system helps us to really have a clear system for admissions. It is just that perhaps we have more overcrowding [and] more problems, but it comes with online admissions system,” said Motshekga.
Motshekga concedes overcrowding in schools is a problem
Education MEC Matome Chiloane pleaded with parents and organisations not to disrupt the placement of pupils and opening of schools.
EFF members protested outside Laerskool Danie Malan in Pretoria North after authorities failed to place a number of pupils at the school for the 2023 academic year.
They accused the school of racism and failing to find a permanent solution to the problem.
Chiloane said the department had requested law enforcement agencies to assist.
“You are disrupting an opportunity for work to be done. We are appealing to the civil organisations to allow us to do our work, don’t just disrupt because you want attention. There are ways that you can find attention without necessarily disrupting our work,” said Chiloane.
“Even now some political parties have entered the space, saying they are there to defend parents’ rights. If you disrupt other children and parents, then you are violating those very same rights that you claim you are defending.”
He said instead of fighting, political parties should help the department.
“There are areas where this has tended to become racial. It can't be that in 2023 we are dealing with racism.”
TimesLIVE
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