Bloemfontein Courant returned to Olympia Primary School in Heidedal where learners had to return home this morning due to angry community members who are dissatisfied with the outcomes of a mediation meeting held between the district head and a few members of the community.
Branch secretary for the South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) in ward 16, Remington Louw, highlighted that despite allegations against the acting principal for racial slurs, it is alleged that the principal is misusing the school funds and is quite discriminative against the learners.
“The community is here to demonstrate their dissatisfaction and lack of faith in the acting principal. We are saying that the department must come as we have given them ample time to champion this challenge but to no avail,” Louw continued.
According to Louw, the department of education is well aware of the community’s issues as a letter was submitted on Wednesday to air the concerns the community has. “The department committed themselves on giving feedback by Thursday but no feedback was given in regards to our submission,” Louw said.
Louw further mentioned that the anticipated result should be the removal of the acting principal. “There are no sports played at this school, our children are in danger as certain boys are even assaulting our children and nothing is being done about this, we fear for our children’s lives. We just want our school back,” Louw concluded.
Bloemfontein Courant reached out to the Free State department of education and is still awaiting a response.
Abigail Visagie
