Gauteng principals want religious leaders to address anti-vax teachers

Some teachers are refusing to get vaccinated for religious reasons, including being branded with the “mark of the beast”, as described in the Bible.

This is according to Thomas Hlongwane, president of the South African Principals’ Association in Gauteng, who has asked the department of basic education to rope in religious leaders to encourage them to do so.

Hlongwane made the proposal to the director-general of basic education, Mathanzima Mweli, during a meeting on Saturday where progress on the teacher vaccination rollout programme was discussed.

It comes in the wake of revelations by the Gauteng education department on Friday that 9,113 teachers and support staff, some with comorbidities, are refusing to take the jabs.

Hlongwane said he suggested to the department it ask religious leaders to make a one-minute video statement encouraging teachers to vaccinate.

“It may not convince all educators who haven’t vaccinated, but it will help encourage them to vaccinate. Although it’s voluntary, we want as many teachers as possible to vaccinate.”

He said teachers did not openly admit they were not willing to vaccinate because of the verse in the New Testament’s Book of Revelation, which states: “Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. The number is 666.”

Generally those teachers who vaccinated would say our colleagues don’t want to vaccinate because of the verse.

—  Thomas Hlongwane, president of the South African Principals’ Association in Gauteng

“Generally those teachers who vaccinated would say our colleagues don’t want to vaccinate because of the verse.”

Hlongwane, who is principal of Pretoria Central High School, said most of the 52 teachers at his school had vaccinated, while four said they needed time to think about it.

According to a story in The Conversation, the mark of the beast, a cryptic mark in Revelation which indicates allegiance to Satan, has been invoked by fringe Christian figures throughout the pandemic in reference to what they deem to be the evil of masks and vaccines.

Meanwhile, chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, who has gone on long leave before his retirement in October, caused a stir in December with his controversial prayer that any Covid-19 vaccine that was “of the devil” be destroyed.

He told News24: “I said, if there is any vaccine manufactured to advance a satanic agenda, of the mark of the beast, 666, or if there is any vaccine manufactured for the purpose of corrupting the DNA of people, that vaccine must be burnt. God must intervene and destroy it!”

Hlongwane said Mogoeng was a prominent figure in society and that his comments were “unfortunate at the time” and “could probably” influence some teachers not to vaccinate.

He said they were told that up to Thursday last week about 280,000 education sector workers had taken the vaccine.

After this round [of vaccinations] there won’t be any opportunity for us to give exemptions to anybody. We will expect everybody to come back [to work], whether you have comorbidities or not.

—  Basic education minister Angie Motshekga

The vaccination programme for teachers was expected to end on Thursday this week.

Hlongwane said teachers who had not been vaccinated would be given another chance during a second or “mop-up operation” phase.

Gauteng education spokesperson Steve Mabona said they were concerned about the number of teachers and some staff members who were refusing to take the vaccine.

“This is quite concerning because we would have thought that this is an opportunity that must be grabbed by all of us in the sector so we normalise the schooling process and when we open in term three we expect that we will be continuing with the process of teaching and learning.”

Basic education minister Angie Motshekga recently said vaccination was voluntary and there were thousands of teachers at home because of comorbidities.

“After this round [of vaccinations] there won’t be any opportunity for us to give exemptions to anybody. We will expect everybody to come back [to work], whether you have comorbidities or not.”

A circular from the department of health dated June 25 states that the Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines should be offered to all pregnant and breastfeeding women who are eligible to be vaccinated and who have completed 14 weeks of gestation.