Judas Sekwela
Parents of pupils at Kgola Ka Leleme Secondary School have locked the school gates, leaving pupils and teachers stranded outside in protest against corruption.
They protested at the school on Tuesday at Ga-Sekgopo village outside Modjadjiskloof in Limpopo, calling for the principal’s head and the removal of the School Governing Body (SGB), accusing them of being corrupt.
They said the SGB members have been there for more than 20 years without being changed and that they were not serving the school but their own personal interests.
They added that some of them are SGB members of another school.
A villager Sipho Moagi, 36, said there are allegations that the school borrowed another school’s money, and that the repayments were diverted “into personal bank accounts of some SGB members and not the school’s bank account”.
“We want to see the school’s financial books so they could be audited,” he said.
Moagi said they decided to close the school as they did not get what they wanted after submitting a memorandum to school management last Friday.
The school had a 25% matric pass rate for the 2020 academic year and this poor performance also angered parents.
“We believe the SGB and principal are not doing anything to make things change,” said Moagi. They said their school will remain closed until their demands are met.
Pupil Tumelo Marutha, 16, said the protest was delaying them. “We hope their issues will be resolved as soon as possible so we can return to school. We cannot afford to miss more school since this academic year was delayed,” he said.
Limpopo Education spokeswoman Tidimalo Chuene said the circuit manager visited the school to engage with parents in order for pupils to return to school.
She said they are concerned about the events and will be monitoring the situation throughout the week.
“It should be noted that as much as we appreciate parents’ rights to raise concerns in the running of the school, this should not be done to the detriment of pupils,” Chuene said.
