Orlando High School clean-up begins
Some pupils at Orlando High School have heeded an instruction from Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi to pick up the mess they made.
|||Johannesburg - On Monday morning some pupils at Orlando High School refused to clean up their trashed administration block, saying they were not responsible for the mess, but others put on overalls and got to work.
On Sunday, Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi warned that his department would not employ anyone to clean up the mess after pupils went on the rampage last week, and he said no one would be taught until the mess had been cleaned up.
On Monday morning he went to the school to make sure the pupils had started cleaning up.
“I’m here to learn and not clean. There’s no way I’m going to clean the administration block because I had nothing to do with what happened there,” a matric pupil said.
Another pupil said he had last been at the administration block in 2014.
“That was the first and the last time so how could I have trashed it? I’m not going to clean,” he said.
Other pupils, however, did not share their qualms.
They arrived at the school wearing overalls over their school uniforms and set to work.
One boy in blue overalls shouted orders to those who were sitting around: “Hey, are you here to decorate or clean?”
When some pupils rushed past for assembly, he stopped them.
“Come and clean,” he told them.
It was mostly boys who were cleaning.
Some of the girls said they were thinking about it.
“I don’t want my hands to be injured by the glass,” said one.
Despite the fact that most of the pupils basked in the winter sun and chatted to their friends, the boys in the administration block were hard at work, throwing the rubbish in the bins, sweeping and putting the furniture in order.
“I don’t have a choice but to clean because the MEC said there will be no schooling until that happens. This is my future,” said one boy.
Pupils went on the rampage at the school on Thursday, targeting the administration block.
Windows and doors were broken. Furniture was smashed, cupboards were emptied and files thrown out, and property including furniture and computers were looted.
Lesufi said the department would not spend a cent replacing school property; neither would a company be employed to clean up the mess or to repair the damage.
“(Today) the children will have to clean the mess before learning continues. They messed it up, they must clean it up.
“This is the only way for them to see that this is wrong.
“There’s not a cent from my purse that will go towards repairing that mess,” Lesufi told the parents at the school yesterday.
He has not sent officials to assess the damage, saying that would have served no purpose as the department would not pay for the repairs.
The MEC’s tough stance came against the backdrop of the #FeesMustFall damage costs to universities of more than R300 milllion and recent vandalising and torching of more than 20 schools in Vuwani, Limpopo.
The rioting at Orlando High School was apparently sparked by pupils’ unhappiness with the principal, Peter Nhlapo.
The pupils’ representative council president Khulekani Zwane accused Nhlapo of disrespecting pupils, often swearing at them.
School governing body (SGB) chair Siyabonga Zwane revealed at the meeting that the rioting started last Monday when some pupils burnt books and a classroom.
On Tuesday, they tried to burn another classroom but the fire was contained quickly. They tried again on Wednesday, but were unsuccessful.
On Thursday, they changed the padlock on the school gate and locked it.
They also kicked teachers out of their classes and some teachers and pupils who ran outside the school found themselves locked out.
The pupils then broke windows and destroyed the administration block.
Lesufi undertook to put the principal on leave while the department investigated and found a solution to the problems at the school.
Lesufi was at pains to explain that removing the principal did not mean he was being made a scapegoat for all that was wrong with the school, and that some teachers and pupils were believed to be involved in the chaos.
Lesufi said all those teachers would be identified and served with suspension letters today, and pupils involved in the riots would be suspended.
“If you are a teacher and you know you incited children to do this, we will act.
“We can’t allow lawlessness to prevail; we need to nip it in the bud,” the MEC said.
botho.molosankwe@inl.co.za
The Star