The education department does not know whether banished Nyaluza Senior Secondary School principal Washington Mushwana will be returning to the school in the future.
The education department does not know whether banished Nyaluza Senior Secondary School principal Washington Mushwana will be returning to the school in the future.
While Robin Solwandle, the education development officer says that while the department does not think Mushwana’s safety is under threat, they cannot "guarantee" his safety at the school. He added that a meeting aimed at resolving the matter with Mushwana and his lawyers (who say they fear for his safety) and the school’s management will be held this week following a failed meeting scheduled for last week.
Mushwana’s attorney, Denver Braadt of East London-based Kirchmann’s Inc, confirmed that they were preparing to attend the meeting. "The meeting is called by the department to resolve the dispute between our client and the school," he said. When asked about his involvement in the matter, Braadt said he was only prepared "at this stage" to say that Mushwana had sought legal advice from his company.
Solwandle admitted that there is a backlog of Maths lessons at the school due to Mushwana’s absence and said that acting principal Mango Nkwinti had already asked him about hiring temporary teachers. "We can’t, however, hire temporary tachers for Nyaluza as there is no vacancy at the school," he added.
However, he later said that internal arrangements had been made which would see a Maths teacher for junior grades teaching Maths to matrics after school. He added that he is negotiating with the provincial department’s head office for a post which they can fill with a Grade 12 Maths teacher.
Dumisani Sopile, the chairperson of the School Governing Body said the school is preparing for the "second phase" of resolving the issue which is due to start as soon as the education department reports back to the school on the progress made since the last school term. The first phase saw the end of a four-week long strike by teachers who were calling for Mushwana’s head after they believed that he was responsible for filling a senior post vacancy to a person they did not approve of.
When contacted Nkwinti said the situation was "very normal" but refused to explain what he meant. Since Grocott’s Mail reported on the story two months ago, learners from the school have expressed fear of persecution by the teachers following their comments, some of which were published in Grocott’s. The president of the representative council of learners, Ongeziwe Mtweba did not respond to any phonecalls.
