Maritzburg College halts charges

CHARGES against three pupils – who had caused a furore in a tweet at one of the country’s oldest and elite schools – are on hold‚ pending a provincial Department of Education investigation into racism.

On Friday‚ the parents of three Maritzburg College pupils were informed that their sons were facing several discipline related charges regarding a picture posted on social media‚ in which the three posed in school uniform holding T-shirts with the words: “EFF our last hope of getting our land back”.

The post sparked a huge outcry‚ with the Economic Freedom Fighters party vowing to take action against the school.

EFF national spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi had said the party rejected the school’s action as pure apartheid‚ Nazi and colonial thinking.

Charging the boys was in violation of the constitution, he said.

Yesterday‚ the provincial department met with the school’s governing body and principal. Spokesman Muzi Mahlambi said: “The school has not dropped the charges‚ but put everything on hold pending the conclusion of full-scale probe relating to racial matters at the school, as has been reported.”

KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Mthandeni Dlungwana said: “I can confirm that we have sent our officials to the school, because we did not want the EFF to politicise the issue.

“I can also confirm that neither the pupils nor their parents are members of the EFF‚ but because of perceived racism‚ we are made to understand that the kids did this just to agitate the teachers.”

Dlungwana said this followed claims of repeated allegations of racism at the high school that were not acted on.

Earlier, heavily armed security personnel yesterday manned the entrance to the college in Pietermaritzburg – and a TimesLIVE team was prevented from gaining access to the school.

A governing body member said talking to the media was barred.