Police were called in to Grahamstown's TEM Mrwetyana Secondary School on Wednesday 21 January 2015 and the school was closed after a stand-off with the Congress of South African students (Cosas).
Police were called in to Grahamstown's TEM Mrwetyana Secondary School on Wednesday 21 January 2015 and the school was closed after a stand-off with the Congress of South African students (Cosas).
Principal Lindelo Ramokolo closed the school, saying he feared threats to his staff, pupils and property.
Speaking to Grocott's Mail shortly after the incident, Ramokolo said Cosas members from other schools had arrived unannounced at TEM Mrwetyana and demanded to address pupils.
"I refused because the teachers were busy issuing stationery to the learners," Ramokolo said. "I told them I could not abandon the programme of the school for them.
"Instead, they should approach the Mrwetyana Cosas members to set up an appointment for a different date."
He said he closed the school when the Cosas group started burning tyres in the school grounds.
"I saw that they posed a threat to fellow learners, to us (teachers) and government property. That is why I called the police and closed the school," Ramokolo said.
Ramokolo said the leadership of Cosas hadn't followed protocol by meeting with school management and the TEM Mrwetyana student body.
"Instead they barged into the classrooms and started mobilising the learners," he said.
He called the police when smoke started rising from a burning tyre on the school's quad.
Four Cosas leaders allegedly instrumental in the chaos were taken into police custody.
Mrwetyana was one of six Grahamstown East public schools where Cosas was doing the rounds to address pupils.
Cosas told Grocott's Mail that the reason for the impromptu door-to-door campaign was the dismal performance of some township schools in the 2014 matric examinations.
The Cosas members claimed that teachers hadn't properly grasped the CAPS curriculum themselves, and so were not competent to teach it.
Sub-regional secretary of Cosas and pupil at Mrwetyana, Thandisiwe Yakheni, also claimed that Cosas-aligned pupils were failed systematically.
"We are also aware of the intimidation faced by our leadership from the teachers," Yakheni said.
"Some teachers threaten to fail us deliberately due to our involvement in Cosas."
Cosas members also raised other concerns about TEM Mrwetyana, including inadequate toilets and alleged teacher misconduct.
"In Mrwetyana there are no toilets and we are forced to go to nearby houses or wait for lunch breaks and go home in order to relieve ourselves," Yakheni said.
"Some teachers come to class drunk and all these explode in our Grade 12 results."
In reply to these claims, Ramokolo said, "The school toilets fell prey to vandals who stripped off the copper pipes. The toilets were out of order for five months last year.
"But they cannot blame the toilets for their results. They were able to go to neighbouring houses," Ramokolo said.
At Mary Waters, the Cosas members said, safety was a problem.
Anelisa Myali said, "At Mary Waters there's no fence around the school. We don't feel safe because criminals roam inside the campus."
Myali said school's infrastructure was deteriorating because there was nothing to stop vandals from entering the school premises.
Other schools visited during Cosas's door to door campaign were Khutliso Daniels, Nombulelo, Ntsika and Nathaniel Nyaluza. These are four of the six no-fee schools in Grahamstown. TEM Mrwetyana and Mary Waters are the other two.
According to analysis by Gadra Education manager Ashley Westaway published in Grocott's Mail ('The lines that divide', 9 January 2015), the city’s six no-fee high schools together managed a matric pass rate of just over 60% last year.
Only 13.7% of the 372 candidates who wrote in these schools obtained Bachelor-level passes.
"That is, a total of only 51 matric students from Nombulelo, Nathaniel Nyaluza, Ntsika, TEM Mrwetyana, Mary Waters and Khutliso Daniels have qualified to go to university in 2015", wrote Westaway in the 9 January analysis.
Grahamstown district director of education Amos Fetsha confirmed he was aware of the incident at TEM Mrwetyana, and had been informed of Cosas's grievances. In a telephone interview with Grocott's Mail on Wednesday Fetsha said, "Fortunately Cosas had written to me last week asking for my intervention in the allegations of deliberate (unfair) failing of learners by teachers."
Cosas had claimed in the letter that there were pupils whose results had been sabotaged by teachers, Fetsha said.
Fetsha said his office had launched an investigation into the matter.
