PROVINCE TAKES RESIDENTS TO COURT
Authorities want village pupils to write exams
A COMMUNITY that has been preventing children from attending school is being taken to court by the government.
The North West department of education has turned to the North West High Court to force residents of Kopela village in Delareyville to allow their children to return to school and write exams.
Schooling in the area ground to a halt in August, after the community burnt down three schools and a clinic, and shut down a care centre and creches.
Residents said they resorted to the criminal action to force the government to provide them with running water, roads and electricity. They said they gambled with their children ’ s future to get the attention of government officials.
But yesterday, provincial education spokesman Elias Malindi said the department was trying everything in its power to make sure the pupils in Kopela wrote their exams.
Malindi said there were other groups in the village who wanted to carry on with the protest and keep the schools shut.
“We have tried to engage with them on several occasions; this is their chance to give their children an education they deserve,” he said.
Malindi said education MEC Wendy Matsumela was expected to meet protesting residents tomorrow to discuss where the pupils would sit for their exams as their schools had been burnt to ashes.
North West premier Supra Mahumapelo visited Kopela last month after the violent protests and set up a committee to meet and resolve the water problems in the village.
However, it appears the committee, made up of mayors from the district and local municipalities, representatives of the traditional council and an official from the national Department of Water and Sanitation, has failed to convince residents to abandon the protest.
Provincial government spokesman Brian Setswambung said the province was calling on residents to allow children to write their exams.
“The community has been afforded an opportunity to raise their issues, but they must not make the children suffer,” he said.
SA Democratic Teacher ’ s Union ’ s provincial secretary Silas Kale urged the government to intervene “for the sake of the future of the children ”.
Last year residents of Kuruman in Northern Cape staged similar action, shutting down 54 schools for more than four months in a bid to force the government to build a tarred road in the area.
More than 20 000 pupils from Grade R to Grade 11 had to repeat their grades this year.