‘Things have gone horribly wrong in the ANC’

insurmountable. “The ANC has faced challenges before. We survived because we listened; we are not in denial.”

Mashatile said they welcomed the state capture inquiry as this would “help the accused to clear their names”.

He also called on the ANC to return to its values and to reclaim its standing as a leader in society, and wanted to call on other likeminded organisations that shared similar values to do the same.

The key speaker, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, called for unity within the party. “Through unity we are very, very strong,” he said, adding that he was concerned about the health of the organisation at present.

The tripartite alliance, he said, was in disarray.

Mantashe said the members of the ANC had to elect leadership that would signal that the looting is over.

He also said that it was a myth that President Jacob Zuma’s removal would solve the problem. It would divide the ANC as he still has support, he said. – Shaun Smillie

ASINGLE mother’s complaint to the Gauteng Education Department about discrimination has put Saxonwold Primary School’s admissions policy under the microscope. The mom was allegedly asked invasive questions about why she was a single parent and told if she refused to answer, her child would not be admitted.

Masutane Modjadji, project manager at Health-e News, e-mailed Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi about the alleged discrimination earlier this month.

But it was only after an inquiry from the Saturday Star this week that the department launched a probe.

This is the latest in a series of discrimination claims at schools countrywide. Last year, pupils at Pretoria High School for Girls protested over policies that forced them to straighten “untidy hair” and barred them from sporting Afros.

Earlier this month, Northcliff High School came under fire for allegedly forcing Muslim girl pupils to obtain “concession cards” allowing them to wear headscarves, with the cards likened to the apartheid-era dompas.

Modjadji said her 9-year-old daughter lived in Limpopo but was getting ready to move to Joburg to live with her next year.

While looking for schools in the Rosebank area, she happened on Saxonwold Primary and picked up an application form after hearing of its solid academic programmes.

While filling in her form, she noted under the “status of parents” section, there was no way to explain she was a single parent who had never been married to her child’s father.

It was when she called the school for clarification that she was allegedly told her child would not even be considered for admission unless she provided an affidavit with detailed personal information on her relationship with the child’s father.

After the school’s alleged insistence on the affidavit, she opted not to apply, and instead wrote to Lesufi and the department about her experience.

“I’ve explained to the school that I have no relationship with him but they insist the affidavit is needed as it is the policy of the department.

“None of the other schools where I applied required this information. Please can you assist, as this very unfair policy places an unnecessary burden on already overwhelmed single mothers,” Modjadji said in her e-mail to the department.

“Surely this cannot be right and it’s humiliating to me as a mother who has to work hard to play the role of two parents,” she wrote.

This week, she told the Saturday Star: “Now I have to justify why a grown