Parents, SGB call on Lesufi to rescue Saulridge High School from ‘anarchy’

Persistent squabbles between the school governing body (SGB) and the principal of a Pretoria school have resulted in Grade 8 pupils being without textbooks, two months into the new year.

Disgruntled parents and SGB members of Saulridge High School in Atteridgeville were calling on Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi to rescue their school from anarchy.

They blamed the principal of not cooperating with the body, resulting in poor infrastructure, lack of school resources and a dismal pass rate.

The school was one of the worst performing schools in Atteridgeville, having a 64.8% matric pass rate last year.

But after months of trying to procure textbooks for the 2020 academic year, the parents and SGB members, who requested anonymity, said the education district office intervened, instead of assisting to address their challenges.

According to the whistleblowers, the SGB was not given the opportunity to follow the correct processes.

“We struggle to procure stationery and textbooks for the pupils. Every time the SGB tries to resolve the issue, we are evaded until it is decided to rope in the district office to resolve our issues. But the district didn’t address our internal issues, instead they saw the opportunity to rope in their own service provider.

“In November 2019, the district said because we failed to procure, they had the powers to take over.”

Close to R300 000 was paid to a service provider in December.

According to the Gauteng education department, the period for procuring pupil and teacher equipment was between May and August.

But since then, pupils have still not received their textbooks.

Education department spokesperson Steve Mabona said 230 textbooks were still outstanding. However, it was not the district office’s fault, he said.

“Not all pupils received textbooks. There are 230 Grade 8 books which are outstanding and the delay is with the publishers… It should be noted that procurement of textbooks is a top-up from the stock that is already available at the school. Also, the Grade 8 numbers increased, with more than 100 pupils compared to 2019,” Mabona said.

While Mabona stressed that other grades were sorted out, a parent told The Citizen that their Grade 10 child still had no textbooks or stationery.

The parent, who once sent a letter to Lesufi in 2018 with a list of grievances about the school, claimed teachers were also not in classrooms and was concerned about his child’s future at the school.

The school infrastructure was also in a bad state, with broken doors, uneven floors, live wires hanging out from ceilings and desk tops used to patch up broken parts of the classroom ceilings.

SGB members said this was due to no budgeting and maintenance. But Mabona said the education district office would be disbanding the school’s SGB because it was not functioning properly.

“The SGB does not have any policies or financial policy. They operated without a budget. They failed to submit audited financial statements for 2018 which were due on 20 June, 2019.”

But the SGB members blamed the school’s management, according to an anonymous member.

“We are not consulted. We are just called to sign blank cheques. It is disheartening when we complain to the district office and they look at us like idiots. Due to the squabbles in the school, the SGB does not function. We call on Lesufi to save us from anarchy.”

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