Maritzburg College told to stop disciplinary action against ‘EFF’ pupils

Charges against three Maritzburg College pupils who posed for a picture while holding T-shirts displaying slogans in support of the EFF have reportedly been withdrawn.

Basic education department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga told eNCA on Monday morning the department instructed the school to stop the disciplinary action against the pupils as they were approaching exams.

“Even if the school were to proceed, where would they find the learners because they’re writing exams now and then they will leave. So it doesn’t make sense really for one to proceed with disciplinary action in that sense. But also that you need to read the school’s act against the guidelines that we’ve given to the education sector to look at when considering matters of these type.

“The school act does disallow this thing but if you read the guidelines, they do allow for free speech. So we need to consider all these things, that’s we feel that the rush to want to proceed with disciplinary action is not proper. People need to cool down, calm down and think about what they want to do and the impact thereof,” he said.

According to a charge sheet shared by Tumi Sole on social media, the learners were facing six charges, including allegedly contravening the South African Schools Act of 1996, as well as engaging in acts that are deemed serious misconduct for learners in public schools, and breaching the school’s code of conduct and social media policies.

The learners are alleged to have “engaged in party-political activities during school hours by supporting or displaying insignia, alternatively party regalia of a known political party, namely the EFF”.

The learners received support from EFF leader Julius Malema and Police Minister Fikile Mbalula, to name a few.

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