School letter threatens foreign pupils

A letter to parents sent out by Eastleigh Primary School in Edenvale, Ekurhuleni, is threatening to have foreign children detained by police should they fail to provide the school with up-to-date pupils’ and parents’ documents.

The letter – dated February 22 – is addressed “to all foreign parents” and claims to be relaying instructions given to the school by the department of home affairs. The letter warns foreign parents to bring original documents to be verified, “as we have some fraudulent documents”.

This, the letter said, had to be done by yesterday or foreign children would not be allowed on government school property as of Monday.

The school warns that children of parents who fail to produce their documents would be detained by police, saying: “If any foreign child arrives here on Monday, we will phone the police to come and collect your child and you can collect your child at the police station.

“These are the direct instructions from department of home affairs. Please comply with them.”

The letter comes at a time when xenophobic violence has once again flared in parts of South Africa, specifically in Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Responding to the letter, Gauteng department of education spokesperson Oupa Bodibe said: “The department can confirm that the Eastleigh Primary School sent a letter to parents, especially foreign nationals, encouraging them to sort out their documentation to comply with immigration regulations.

“As a department, we support the need to comply with the laws of the country, but caution that we need to be very sympathetic and deal with it with empathy, so we’ve asked the school to withdraw the last part, where it was threatening to send the children to a police station.”