SGB again closes Tzaneen school over principal dispute

A protracted feud involving the appointment of a school principal at Stanley Mopai Secondary School in Tzaneen could result in the school joining a list of seven others that obtained a 0% matric pass rate in Limpopo last year.

This is after the aggrieved school governing body (SGB) indefinitely closed the school for the second time since it opened for the year in January.

The disgruntled parents say they closed the school because the department of education chose to consider gender parity and appointed a female instead of a male school principal.

The school was closed for the first time on Monday, 10 February and it was again shut on Monday after education MEC Polley Boshielo and officials from the Mopani district failed to arrive for a scheduled meeting with the SGB.

The position of the new principal was advertised in August after the former principal, Makwekwe Pilusa, resigned.

The controversy started after the department of education allegedly introduced a second-best-performing candidate (applicant), who is a female as the new principal for the school, leaving the best candidate, who reportedly passed the interviews with flying colours out in the cold.

After a week of chanting slogans and meetings the SGB decided to reopen the school in February in response to a plea by the education department. Now the SGB has again closed the school, claiming the department was playing games.

“Yes we have closed the school again because the MEC seems incapable of solving our impasse. She begged us to reopen the school and discuss this matter like civilised parents,” SGB chairperson Mathews Theu Malatji yesterday said.

“But instead of honouring the appointment, she chose to snub the meeting. We cannot allow the department to impose a principal on us. We have agreed to lock the gates of the school until such time the MEC deems fit to come to us.”

SA Democratic Teachers Union Limpopo provincial chairperson Sewel Tjebane said it was wrong for the SGB to vent its anger on the education of their children.

“They must just let their children back to classes and learn while they discuss the impasse with the department. It must also be borne in mind that the appointment of school principal is at the behest of the head of the department of education.

“I think in this case the head was honouring the principles of gender parity which favours a female to be appointed as principal in an endeavour to empower women in leadership,” Tjebane said.

The department said earlier the SGB could make recommendations, while it had the right to make appointments.

– alem@citizen.co.za

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