SACP GAUTENG PROVINCE SUPPORT PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT'S PRINCIPLED FIGHT AGAINST RACIAL BIGOTRY IN ROODEPORT PRIMARY SCHOOL
19 August 2015
The SACP Gauteng Province is deeply concerned by the recent crisis of racially motivated disruptions of learning and teaching at the Rodeepoort Primary School, west of Johannesburg.
We are concerned that sections of the working class and historically oppressed African and Black people are mobilized along racial lines to perpetuate hatred and divisions of the Apartheid past.
Regrettably, the stoking of intra-class racial violence severely affects the right of working class children to proper learning and teaching regardless of race.
We are firmly convinced that this racially motivated incitement of the working class is driven backstage by an elitist faction that is hell bent on installing a racially preferred school management regime.
We believe that this divisive elitist gang, driven by divide and rule logic, seeks to use the school as a tool of continued accumulation, unmerited privileges and corrupt practices.
We are convinced that the violent disruptions borders on racism to disguise looting and corruption in the school. This is more so as the allegations of improper appointment of African school managers were investigated by the Department of Education and were found to be without merit. Also allegations of financial mismanagement against the same managers were investigated by the Department, whose outcomes cleared managers of any wrongdoing.
The outcomes of these two investigations, proved beyond doubt that there are no sound reasons to reject the appointment of the new management team except sheer racial bigotry.
The SACP fully supports the temporary closure of the school and the process to facilitate a resolution of the problem by the Department of Education.
We also caution that any mediation should expose and isolate petty bourgeois elitist factions that are divisive and seek to use the school as a site of accumulation and corruption.
We believe that the mediation should focus on uniting the working class and people of Roodepoort. In this regard it is all the more important that some mediators are drawn from working class families and with corresponding outlook.
We call on the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) and the rest of the Tripartite Alliance formations to work tirelessly to engage teachers and workers to raise the banner of working class unity and solidarity to defeat the elitist and corrupt divisive forces behind the violence in the school.
We call on the police and law enforcement agencies to use their capacity to expose and root out corrupt elements perpetuating anarchy and violence in the school. They should also act consciously and deliberately to defend the rights of learners to receive learning under safe and secure conditions.
Statement issued by Jacob Mamabolo, SACP Gauteng Provincial Secretary, August 19 2015
