As thousands of school children march through KwaMashu‚ Durban‚ the KwaZulu-Natal education department has warned that ongoing protests could severely affect the school year.
The march - which was apparently started by pupils of the JG Zuma High School - comes amid allegations that foreign nationals were abducting children from schools in the area.
The allegation‚ which surfaced on social media from last week but reached a crescendo on Monday night when foreign-owned stores were looted and police came under attack‚ has been labelled "fake news".
Apart from the implications for teaching and learning‚ department spokesman Muzi Mahlambi has also raised concerns about how police might respond in the future given the ongoing circulation of false information.
He said authorities throughout the province had not received any reports of abduction.
"These people who are spreading these hoax messages are disturbing all of us in our communities. When parents receive the [fake] news they leave work‚ they panic‚ they come to school [and] they get to school and everything is in order‚" he said.
"They are also disturbing the work of the police … who are going to get used to the fact that this is a false report. And when there is a real situation they will take their time and not react to the real report as urgently as they should because they are used to false reports‚" he said.
Mahlambi said police needed to trace the origins of the messages "and deal with these people".
-TMG Digital/TimesLIVE
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