Statement of the Congress of South African Students

6 February 2015 

The Congress of South African Students has made a call for a total closure of schools in the whole country, which must continue until learners in Malamulele are back at school learning, and all townships where learners are used as pawns to advance service delivery demands. As an organization we have resolved on this call after the continuation of torching of schools in the Malamulele community, which emanates from the violent community protests in this particular area.

COSAS declares support and solidarity to people of Malamulele because we are an organization which always acknowledges the fact that students are members of the community first before they are scholars, therefore whatever affects a community affects us directly as students. We however condemn in strong terms the disruption of the culture of teaching and learning by our parents in Malamulele. Our subscription to the freedom charter since 1989 means no pupil can remain comfortable in a class while another is deprived access to a learning institution, clearly enshrined in the bill of rights.

The torching of 5 schools in Malamulele cannot be taken lightly, this has never happened since the apartheid era, yet the intervention from government continues to be very weak. Police in Malamulele have failed to protect schools and have watched as bystanders as schools burn one after another while the police station is heavily guarded. The police are always very quick to take bribes but fail to protect the rights and the most primary asset of their own children.

The commissioner of the police is quite on this matter whilst peace and stability in the area is non-existent. The administration of our president is failing to deploy the South African National Defence Force to protect our schools, yet SANDF was deployed to monitor our peaceful back to school campaign rally two weeks ago in Naledi-Soweto. The security cluster of the country is too quick to defend Nkandla but moves slower than a snail to defend schools, which we believe, are more essential than the security of President Jacob Zuma who we feel must come personally to give the people of Malamulele their deserved municipality.

The National Executive Committee of COSAS is currently in Malamulele and is getting firsthand experience of the current situation in the area. Yesterday a stakeholders meeting held in Malamulele where community members and leaders attended, Minister Pravin Gordhan evidently fell short in finding an amicable solution, this after being the second time he is intervening in this matter; This is proven by the fact that ordinary community members who were speaking amongst themselves after the meeting declared that more schools would be burnt which indeed transpired. The situation in Malamulele is beyond the control of poorly trained SAPS, the state intelligence must take control working with the SANDF.

We are worried about the number of schools which must physically collapse and the number of days learners must spend introducing themselves to drugs and loitering delinquently before the MEC of education in Limpopo and the minister of DBE visibly responds to the now speedily deteriorating education calamity in Malamulele. To date, there are no strides made by the department to assist learners with an interim self-study program and curriculum catch up material.

WE WANT TO LEARN WITHOUT FEAR

Statement issued by COSAS President, Sandra Baloyi, February 7 2015

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