Parent hit, 12 held in havoc outside school
TENSIONS simmered yesterday outside Hoërskool Overvaal in Vereeniging, Gauteng, with a parent punched in the face and at least 12 protesters arrested for public violence.
Police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse EFF and ANC protesters after they refused to vacate the premises.
Two police nyalas were parked outside the school, which has been at the centre of a language row for refusing to accept 55 English-speaking Grade 8s.
The police remained to ensure that protesters did not return after they burnt tyres and overturned dustbins in front of the school gates.
Classes then continued without disturbance as private security was also stationed inside the school premises.
Earlier‚ about four stun grenades were fired into the crowd and a scuffle broke out between the police and demonstrators.
The group was demanding transformation at the school and said they would do so until their demands were met.
The parent was allegedly punched by an EFF protester when he made an offensive gesture towards a group of protesting red beret supporters‚ after dropping off his daughter for school.
James van Heerden‚ the father of a Grade 8 pupil‚ said parents seeking to enrol their children at the school must look for alternative places that offered tuition in their preferred language.
“They must take ‘no’ for an answer because they tried and they didn’t win‚ so they can take their kids somewhere else.
“Every child has a right to learn in their home language and we don’t have a colour issue here‚ but they want to make it a colour issue.
“We’ve got black kids here who are prepared to learn in Afrikaans‚ so why don’t their kids do the same?” he said.
He said if parents wanted their children to learn in English‚ they should take them to Englishspeaking schools instead of causing havoc for the Afrikaans school’s executives.
However‚ another parent who wanted her daughter enrolled at the school said the curriculum should be offered in English and not Afrikaans.
“The reason why we are here is to fight for the rights of our children. There can’t be a school which only accommodates one language.We have schools in the townships in Vereeniging which accommodate white pupils and they are taught in English‚ so why can’t they do the same?” asked the parent‚ who wanted to remain anonymous.
“The only thing we want to achieve is that our children are allowed to learn in this school because it’s the best school that our money can buy in this area.”
A parent wearing ANC regalia said: “We want teachers to do their jobs and teach our kids in English so that it will be easy for them to understand.”
Some parents had threatened to burn down the school after a Pretoria High Court ruling earlier this week.
It ruled that the Department of Education did not have the authority to unilaterally override the school’s language policy when, last month‚ it had ordered the school to take 55 English-speaking pupils from the start of the new school year.
The court found that on the overwhelming weight of the evidence‚ the Afrikaans-medium school had no capacity to receive the English learners‚ let alone to do so at such short notice and to convert to a dualmedium school. – TimesLIVE
‘ We don’t have a colour issue here‚ but they want to make it a colour issue