‘One gatvol Mama’ wonders why Panyaza Lesufi is not fixing township schooling system

'You are about black this, black that, but fight for future generations to be taught by our oppressors in their foreign languages and thus perpetuating this destruction of black identity.'


With the first official day of the school calendar under way, one parent has written a volley of an open letter to Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi asking why suburban schools continue to be prioritised to the detriment of township schools.

Read the letter in full below from ‘Comrade’ Nthabiseng Koza Wa Mahlobogoane.

Dear Panyaza

What would happen if you spent all of 2018 fixing township schools, insisting on your teachers to get free extra training, resourcing our schools, and growing balls to tackle SADTU?

I will tell you. Our children wont have to be woken up in the wee hours of the morning, to be squashed like sardines in mini buses, travel long distances, sometimes not even making it to the school cos the taxi breaks down or is involved in an smash.

They wont arrive at school tired and miserable, struggling to soak in what is being taught, wont have to face racism and be exposed to your grandstanding masqueraded as sorting the white establishment out.

I will tell you this as well. Parents would save at least R1000.00 per month from transport costs etc. The township economy would be boosted by the children’s people selling snacks and lunches at the schools. Our children would not be pawns in your games. I am gatvol with you and political party’s nonsense.

You signed these crap laws and constitution and made sure whites retain everything, you carried over you 80s slogan of education on the back burner and the lie of freedom first into democracy. We havent forgotten that you guys didnt struggle to be poor and are thus you all do what benefits you and yours. An illiterate citizenry serves your goals very well akere. Now you act as though whites sprung racism on you while you were sleeping.

In 2018 education for a black child is still a privilege. When do you stop and put Black people first? When do you stop looking for publicity and get actual work done? Why must our children beg for assimilation? Why cant you bring the same resources that white schools have into townships? We can build a holiday resort for one family, why cant we have the best money can offer for our children? I am so sick of you.

You are so strange, fighting with whites to take your children into their spaces, turn them into amoebas who don’t know who they are instead of learning from them how they took their non language and made it as best as it is. You are about black this, black that but fight for future generations to be taught by our oppressors in their foreign languages and thus perpetuating this destruction of black identity.

Instead of fixing our township schools and our children can be taught in their mother tongue, you are helping keep white culture as the best. You are a hot mess and uyanyanyisa.

One gatvol Mama

The Citizen forwarded the letter to the MEC’s office, and is awaiting an official response.

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