The school governing body (SGB) of Laerskool Jan van Riebeeck has denied the allegations, as per information given to the Addie in a statement by Gauteng Department of Education spokesman Phumla Sekhonyane, that the school will be twinned with Payneville Primary School.
The chairman of the SGB has issued the following letter in response to the story ‘Two local schools set to pair’ (August 20).
“For the record this is the formal stance of the Jan van Riebeeck SGB and Executive Management:
Under the visionary leadership of the headmaster Herman Flemming, Jan van Riebeeck did initiate an uplifting partnership with Payneville Primary in 2013 out of goodwill identifying several needs and shortcomings not addressed by the Department of Education.
This project was handled and administrated between Flemming and the IDSO at the time Alex Khunene.
The school assigned two project managers showing great initiative and making great progress and inroads into the upliftment of Payneville School and community.
Several projects including the erection of a soccer field, regular handouts of very necessary education items such as colouring pens and many others were well underway in 2014.
Formal meetings between the executive members of the SGB took place with the intent of training and educating all members, assisting them with the understanding of their roles as SGB members and the responsibilities that goes with it.
This project were unfortunately halted by the MEC with the latest intention to merge the above mentioned schools formally under a Gazetted Section 17 (1).
In consultation with FEDSAS and several legal entities the SGB and leadership of Jan van Riebeeck has made it clear in writing that it will not be participating in the formal twinning process since it is viewed as non-practical and unconstitutional in its current format.
The decision therefore not to formally partake in the twinning process and to officially distance itself from gazetted process but rather continue with our ongoing partnership project as self-initiated in 2013 with Payneville Primary School.
This however was not well accepted by the Department of Education.
We sadly had to halt all projects that were in progress since then with the exception of the regular handout of food parcels and associated items for children suffering the fate of ambitious politicians.
We would like to make it very clear that Laerskool Jan van Riebeeck is a proudly Afrikaans school with a rich history built up over many years.
We will continue to act within the letter of the law without exception but the suggestion that there will be one governing body and joint bank account between the mentioned schools is a non-workable proposition and far fetched suggestion.
Jan van Riebeeck will continue to build and excel its heritage as an Afrikaans medium school, protecting its history, guarding its hard earned assets and enhancing the well-being of every child regardless of race and colour as suggested by the honourable MEC.”
