Sies! Uyasinyanyisa, Malema tells Kevin Pietersen

Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen and former Maritzburg College pupil found himself on the wrong side of Twitter after condemning a picture of three pupils displaying shirts with slogans in support of the EFF on them.

Pietersen tweeted the school and said the boys’ actions were a “total disrespect” for “once a great school”.

https://twitter.com/KP24/status/918834292020584448

His tweet received more than a thousand comments, with most criticising him for his statement. Maritzburg College also commented and asked him to delete the picture.

“We are aware of it and it certainly is not acceptable to us,” the school wrote, in a tweet that has since been deleted.

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Pietersen’s tweet also caught EFF leader Julius Malema’s attention, who asked him if he wanted history to repeat itself, referring to the 1976 march.

“Whiteness is extremely dangerous when threatened hence the killing of kids in 1976 and you want history to repeat itself, Sies uyasinyanyisa [you’re irritating us],” said the EFF leader.

Malema added that he was “ready” for the school after reports claiming that it had charged them.

According to a charge sheet shared by Tumi Sole, the learners are 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 hearing is apparently scheduled to take place on October 21 at 8am.

Here are the rest of the charges:

#MaritzCollege

charge sheet @MaritzCollege issued

Constitutionality of the policy & schools act will be challenged! pic.twitter.com/XfT9fCFlIA

— Tumi Sole (@tumisole) October 14, 2017

Other political leaders such as DA leader Mmusi Maimane and Police Minister Fikile Mbalula also shared their opinion on the matter, with Maimane saying: “I wonder why a school would act in this way. Our democracy was for freedom of association and that each South African has right of expression.”

In a series of tweets, Mbalula said the learners should not be punished as they “did nothing wrong”.

“Those kids who displayed preference of a political party should not be punished they did nothing wrong.

“Fact that they didn’t raise a t-shirt of my party doesn’t make them victims am very impressed by kids who are politically aware.

“We cry everyday ‘Young people are politically apathetic’, this is a perfect display that they are not,” he said.

Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said he was behind the boys all the way.

“No charge sheet used against these boys for expressing their free speech shall prosper,” he said.

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