AfriForum video gives a voice to desperate Eldorado Park school community

9 January 2020 

AfriForum released a video recording today to the media of a discussion with the Eldorado Park community, in which it tells of its frustrations with meddling by the education union SADTU in an attempt to paralyse the school, as well as the Gauteng Education Department’s inability to support the community. 

After futile requests directed every month to the education department, the school community of Eldorado Park Secondary School – better known as the blue school – approached Adv. Gerrie Nel of AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit for help. Adv. Nel met with the parents and governing body of the school to find out about their problems, after which they requested him to take up the case on their behalf. 

AfriForum had a comprehensive interview with the chairperson of the governing body and a community leader of Eldorado Park. Both explain in the video the extent of the issue, how the media ignores the community’s side of the story and how Panyaza Lesufi, Gauteng MEC for Education, simply does not care for the learners’ interests. 

The video is available here.

“More than seven teachers are regularly absent for the last two years as a result of SADTU’s negative interference. They refuse to perform their daily educational duties and the shortage in teachers means that learners’ exam papers are not marked, and as a result they cannot receive their school reports,” says Carien Bloem, Manager for Education at AfriForum. “The parent community of Eldorado Secondary School has an urgent need to improve their children’s learning environment, and we have to help them with it.”

The problems and incongruences at Eldorado Park Secondary School is yet another reason why AfriForum launched a comprehensive campaign against Lesufi in 2019. “At the start of the new school year, the school community needs to know that the authorities regard their children’s interests as the highest priority. For as long as Lesufi is at the head of education in Gauteng, however, this will not be the case,” Bloem concludes.

AfriForum encourages the public to support its campaign against Lesufi’s misdemeanours by signing a petition that demands Lesufi’s dismissal. Visit the website www.afriforum.co.za/en/lesufimustfall/, or SMS your name to 32782 (R1).

Issued by Hesti Steenkamp, Media Relations Officer, AfriForum, 9 January 2020