Durban pupils break windows‚ burn dustbins in protest over new principal

Angry pupils at an Umlazi high school in Durban went on the rampage on Friday morning in protest against the appointment of a new principal.

King Shaka High School’s mission to teach pupils self-discipline was thrown out of the window when they burnt dustbins and smashed windows. A large contingent of police was dispatched to the school in the township’s E-section to contain the volatile situation.

When TimesLIVE arrived at the school‚ a large group of pupils were still protesting outside while police kept a close watch.

Police later ordered them to leave the premises of the 51-year-old school and they dispersed. The names of the current principal and the previous principal could not be immediately established.

School has been suspended until Monday. None of the pupils approached were willing to talk about the protest.

King Shaka’s mission is to teach self-discipline‚ motivate pupils to be industrious‚ assertive and co-operative and have high self-esteem.

It is part of Adopt-a-School‚ a Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation project‚ which strives to address the inequalities and inadequacies in rural and disadvantaged schools.

Umlazi operational commander Captain Musa Ngwane‚ who was at the protest‚ said the chaos started at about 9am and police were told that the pupils were protesting against a change of principal.

“As part of solving this problem‚ because we want our learners to learn and we also want the teachers to be safe and the school structure to be safe‚ I tried to call the circuit office‚” he said. I had hope that they would send the principal but “[we] were told that they were busy in a meeting and they sent the deputy principal to the circuit office to try to resolve the problem‚”

He said the deputy principal decided to send the pupils home and promised to give them feedback on Monday.

“We’re hopeful that this problem will be resolved‚” said Ngwane.

KwaZulu-Natal education spokesman Scelo Khuzwayo condemned the pupils’ behaviour and urged them not to resort to violence when they have grievances.

“The department’s door is always open and we urge the learners to register their concerns with the department rather than rushing to violence. As the department we’re always there to intervene in a manner that does not cause disruption to teaching and learning‚” he said.