Stop this madness

OFTEN we hear and talk about our hard-won freedoms and the rights that our fledgling democracy guarantees every citizen in this country, especially our children.

Yet we are regularly confronted by the suffering of our children – the very youth we expect to take up leadership roles in a future South Africa.

Instead of putting them in the forefront of our education to arm them with the necessary skills to make a decent living, we act irrationally.

For a week now, the doors of learning for close to 1 500 Eastern Cape pupils have been firmly shut. This is a direct result of protesting residents raising their dissatisfaction with the ward councillor who was elected instead of their preferred candidate. They took their “fight” to five rural schools near Libode, forcing pupils and teachers out of their classrooms.

These schoolchildren are now caught in the centre of the storm, though the residents’ gripe is not with the department of education or the schools, but with the ANC and the IEC. They want the immediate removal of ANC ward 15 councillor Thembalethu Macingwane, who won in the recent local government election. They want former ANC branch secretary and independent candidate Sebenzile Sixabela to take up the council seat instead. Sixabela is quick to point out he is not the one who instigated the protest.

We must ask why these protests are targeting schools.

The country witnessed the devastating destruction of schools in Vuwani in Limpopo when residents there demanded to be included in a new municipality.

While this is not nearly as violent, in Libode children are selfishly being denied their basic right of access to education by dissident groups pushing their own undemocratic agendas.

The residents should appreciate that the outcome of a free and fair election has to be respected as it is an important pillar of a democracy.

Their preferred candidate did not make the cut as he did not get the votes in ward 15. It is as simple as that. The ANC secured a convincing majority of 63.4% in the ward while independent candidates managed 26.8% of the votes and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) 5.48%.

It is deeply disturbing that these protesters think they can warn principals they will not back down until their demands are met.

For the sake of the children the sooner this ends the better.

Preparations for the trial exams have already been extremely badly affected, with exams only weeks away.

And that is a crying shame.