WATCH: Protests outside school over learner placements

Although the reopening of public schools on Monday was smooth in some places and others saw parents protesting for their children to be placed, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga put her foot in her mouth by telling school children educated people don’t rape.

Thousands of pupils returned to school when the academic year finally commenced after a two-week extension of the
school holidays amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Addressing pupils during her oversight visit at Nellmapius Secondary School in Mamelodi, Pretoria, Motshekga’s attempted words of encouragement to get an education seemed to have even left the pupils in strong disagreement.

She told the pupils her department had prioritised education because it would help in dealing with challenges “because an educated man won’t rape, right?”

While the pupils loudly expressed their disagreement with her, the minister said her theory was that “the more educated you are, the more sophisticated you are, the more you can’t get involved in wrong things because you can look after yourself, you can look after your family, you can look after your environment”.

Motshekga later said her words were taken out of context and boys should be educated about how to deal with power, patriarchy and negative, or toxic masculinity.

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“Regarding the reactions of the [pupils], I was not going to debate because the purpose of my remark was to encourage them to be educated on GBV, including educating them about women abuse,” she said.

While addressing the pupils in Mamelodi, protesting parents in Akasia demonstrated outside schools in their area as their children were not yet placed, or were placed about 30km away.

Students and parents protest outside the Akasia Primary School in Pretoria after many learners living in the area were denied access to the schools in their area, 15 February 2021, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles

Parent Thabo Moroane picketed alongside his Grade 8 son on Monday morning, saying he was placed at a school in Pretoria West, instead of one near his home.

“We applied online in June or July last year. We got feedback, but our child was placed in Daspoort, even though we applied for schools in our area,” said Moroane.

“There is no logic around this. It doesn’t make sense to us. We live within a 3km radius of a high school, but we are placed some 30km away.”

Students and parents protest outside the Akasia Primary School in Pretoria after many learners living in the area were denied access to the schools in their area, 15 February 2021, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles

But after ambushing several schools in the area, some pupils were eventually taken in, said one of the leaders of the demonstration, Meshack Malaza.

He said out of the approximately 200 children who needed placement, several of the schools managed to take in about 60.

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“We had to demonstrate and demand meetings with the principals,” said Malaza.

“We are residents of this area and it only makes sense for our children to cross the street to get to school.”

Motshekga had announced on Sunday that about 16,000 Grade 1 and Grade 8 pupils were still without a school as the department struggled to place them.

– rorisangk@citizen.co.za

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