Members of the March and March movement and Operation Dudula returned to Addington Primary School on Wednesday in a protest against learners born to foreign parents, reigniting a volatile dispute that has gripped the community.
Shouting slogans and waving placards, protesters gathered at the school gates.
South African Police Service (SAPS) were deployed in numbers and stood guard at the entrance as tensions ran high, with authorities moving swiftly to prevent the situation from boiling over and to ensure the safety of those inside the school.
Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, the chairperson of the education and health subcommittee for the African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal, said the matter has been discussed extensively in the party with solutions sought.
“We would like to request the citizens of our country to make schools centres of learning and teaching,” he said.
“Right now, we are getting reports that we should assist and support some of the younger pupils with counselling because some of the issues that they witnessed last week were things they should not have been exposed to.”
This comes after the anti-immigrant group confronted parents at the school at the start of the term, claiming that the institution favoured foreigners.
“If there are issues to be handled, let it be not in areas where there is learning and teaching to disturb… The school is currently at full capacity with 1,548 learners. Of those, 968 are South African citizens”
However, March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma believes the majority of learners at the learning facility are foreigners.
“It is not just about Addington Primary, it’s about every South African child that doesn’t have a space in school, is in school but their learning is compromised because classes are overcrowded, don’t have enough food,” Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma.
Sikuzani Furaha, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) told that she believes that pupils are safe as long as there is police presence.
“It’s useless to go there because officers are taking care of that. If the issue escalates, they will call us to go fetch the kids,” she said. “We shouldn’t be fighting in front of children.”
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