The district office of the Eastern Cape provincial education department is urging local ANC leaders to intervene in the ongoing crisis at Nathaniel Nyaluza Public Secondary School.
The district office of the Eastern Cape provincial education department is urging local ANC leaders to intervene in the ongoing crisis at Nathaniel Nyaluza Public Secondary School.
This was prompted by the ANC intervention at DD Siwisa Primary School where procedural flaws in selecting a principal at the school led to the department re-starting the selection process.
Provincial spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said the department is lobbying influential local political leaders to help reconcile Nathaniel Nyaluza staff members with the school’s ousted principal Washington Mushwana. "Despite the staff telling him to leave along with his newly appointed HOD in May, now they are afraid of sitting in a meeting with his lawyers," he added.
He also said that after realising the department’s failure to get the teachers and Mushwana’s lawyers to meet, they are is resorting to a "community resolution venture" where prominent ANC members will be asked to intervene. He confirmed that the same venture was successfully used at DD Siwisa Primary School last month.
Some of the parents of DD Siwisa learners told Grocott’s Mail that they were surprised to see the ANC and its alliance partners attending a parents’ meeting called by Thamsanqa Fetsha, the department’s district director. In attendance were the group of parents, two departmental officials sent by Fetsha, and leaders from the ANC, the ANC Youth League and the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu).
"This was upstaged by the announcement that [the DD Siwisa education development officer Robin]Solwandle had been removed from the school by Fetsha because he was not doing what the department required of him, we were shocked to hear this," said a parent who did not want to be named for fear of victimisation.
ANC Youth League co-ordinator Luyanda Sakata said they were asked by the department to intervene because councillors associated with the ANC were "creating havoc" at the school. He added that at the meeting they voiced their support for the department’s decision to restart the selection process.
ANC chairman Phumzile Smile confirmed that he attended the meeting to "intervene as the ruling party which also has an interest in education". However, he said the party was not invited to the school but that it had become aware of the school’s crisis through its ward structures. "We were well received by the department and the school governing body as we explained our objectives to them before the meeting," he added.
According to Smile, the parents welcomed them at the school because they "knew the ANC would help".
"We were systematic in explaining to them the value of ensuring tuition continued uninterrupted at the school," he added. Even though he refused to discuss the details, he asserted that the selection process of the principal, which was concluded in June, was "procedurally flawed".
Solwandle referred enquiries to Fetsha who reiterated his stance on never dealing with the media directly and referred Grocott’s Mail to the provincial head office. Attempts to speak to Sadtu drew a blank.
