All eyes were on Eldorado Park Secondary School last week when members of the School Governing Body (SGB), parents and community activists blocked the school’s main entrance to send a message to the seven teachers who accused the school of being racist. In 2017, the teachers stopped going to work, accusing the principal of financial mismanagement and racism.
Among their grievances was that the principal threatened them with a knife and that members of the SGB threatened and intimidated them.
Subsequent investigations into the allegations leveled at the school and the principal by the Department of Education found that many of the claims were unfounded. An SGB representative at the school, Victor Molahloe said that the seven teachers have put the school into disrepute.
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“Today our school is being branded as a racist school, which we are not. They have neglected our children and we pleaded with them to return to the school when all of this started but they were adamant that they no longer wanted to be a part of the school.”
“We were then forced to find replacement teachers and our children did very well. Those teachers gave us distinctions and an 84.90% matric pass rate. So we are saying to those teachers that they should continue to stay away like they did for over a year,” he said.
The principal, SGB and the school community were requested to reinstate the seven teachers who were meant to return to their posts on January 9 this year. However, they were barred from entering the school premises. A letter was issued to the principal stating that the seven teachers would report for duty two weeks ago.
Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said in a statement that the department has had several consultative meetings with all relevant stakeholders and encouraged the community to accept the affected educators.
The statement read, “Therefore, we urge the principal and SGB to ensure that the teachers are welcomed at the school, and that their work conditions are favourable. We further appeal to the community not to disrupt schooling,” he said.
“The SGB denies that the parents did not want the teachers back because of their race. “This is not a racial issue, I am a black man myself,” said Molahloe.
“Keep the contracted teachers who helped our children achieve an 86.90% matric pass rate and let those seven teachers who left our children for 12 months stay where they are or be placed elsewhere,” said Keith Duarte from the Gauteng Shutdown Co-ordinating Committee.
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