Economic Freedom Fighters Gauteng will engage in a picket at the Gauteng Department of Education against the exclusion of over 2000 learners from accessing schools

12 February 2023

The Economic Freedom Fighters Gauteng will undertake a picket at the Gauteng Department Of Education regarding the fact that more than two thousand (2000) learners, mainly Grade 1 and Grade 8 prospects, find themselves without school due to the failed online registration system, this is despite the department having committed to finding placement for all learners by the end of January.

As a result, a huge number of learners are faced with a possibility of spending the whole year without accessing a classroom and their right to education violated.

The Gauteng Department of Education has dismally failed to manage the online reg istration process a way that will serve the residents of the province and has come up with a plethora of excuses for their failure, including, lack of space, late applications, missing documents, and system glitches.

These reasons are inexcusable for an administration that has been in power since the dawn of democracy.

A government that is alive to the needs of its people should have long the urgent need build more schools to accommodate the growing population caused by the centralized economic development patterns inspired by the apartheid government.

The department's excuse that there is no land to build on is a lazy one as there are constitutional provisions to expropriate land for public purposes. If anything, this excuse validates the EFF's call for the expropriation of land without compensation.

The online registration system which was meant to make the registration process easy, has in fact caused frustrations for our people. Consequently, in its provincial plenum, the EFF has called for an overhaul of the system in order to make it technically effective and user-friendly to the men and women on the ground.

(h the picket day, the EFF will demand for the immediate placement of all learners who are still without school and that must happen within 24 hours, the failure of which the EFF will engage on an aggressive walk-in program across the province until all children are guarded of their constitutional rights to education.

We call on all affected parents to join the EFF in this program.

The Picket will take place under the following details:

DATE: WEDNESDAY, 15 FEBRUARY 2023

TIME: 09HOO

MEETING POINT: GHANDI SQUARE

Issued by EFF, 13 February 2023