Mayoral umbrella ban

On Friday 31 January the Bela-Bela Mayor Jeremiah Ngobeni dropped the proverbial bombshell when he declared a ban on learners shielding themselves from the weather with umbrellas.

The first citizen’s statement on the occasion of the Bela-Bela Municipal schools’ awards at the local Multi-Purpose Centre

was not received well and some learners were booing from the crowd.

The prelude to this misconduct started earlier in the day at morning assembly on the foregrounds of Maope High School where the Limpopo Treasury MEC Seaparo Sekwati, addressed the school.

At the school event Ngobeni ordered that the learners close their umbrellas, which they did.

But when one learner collapsed, apparently from the heat, many of the learners raised their umbrellas again to shield themselves from the sun.

This did not go down well with Ngobeni.

Later at the community hall Ngobeni charged that “there is a lack of discipline” on the part of the learners who raised their umbrellas at Maope High School.

The mayor’s speech was in essence to promote a pledge the municipality had drawn up for headmasters at post-primary schools in the Bela-Bela circuit.

The pledge demands, among other matters of excellence, that schools “strive for 100% pass rate from 2020 henceforth”.

Speaking at the community hall, Ngobeni was booed by some learners when he declared that umbrellas would no longer be permitted on school premises.

— The BEAT