Family finds the grass is greener at Greenside than at Northcliff

Monanye and Beauty Letswalo were so desperate to enrol their children at Northcliff High in Johannesburg that they staged a sit-in in the school’s reception area in April.

Indigent Monanye even asked his son Kgaogelo Letswalo, an advocate, to represent him in the family’s urgent high court application in May to force the former Model C school to admit the children, without realising it was “improper” because they are related.

Though the Letswalo family lost their court bid, their six-month battle to find grade 8 places for their son Mojalefa, 14, and daughter Modjadji, 13, has ended happily after they were admitted to Greenside High, another former Model C school in the city.

The teenagers started lessons there when schools returned from holiday on July 19.

The siblings, who had not seen the inside of a classroom since January, had been trying to enrol in grade 8 since the online admissions system opened on August 10 last year.

Their choices were Northcliff High and Rand Park High, but they were offered places at Ferndale High, about 8km from their home.

The family’s problems began after information on the online system incorrectly indicated they lived in Cosmo City in Roodepoort instead of Windsor West, just north of Northcliff.

After they lost the court case, Ben Mothupi, the ACDP’s branch chairperson for Freedom Park and Naturena, lobbied Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi to “accommodate the children at a nearby school”.

Responding to Mothupi’s letter, the department’s director of legal services, Nombedesho Ngcobozi, advised him in a letter dated May 20 that the family should take their children to the Johannesburg north district director’s office where they would be helped with placement.

“I am more than excited they have been placed at a school,” Mothupi said, adding that the department did not respond to his inquiries in this regard.

Monanye, who has a photograph of his children wearing the Greenside High uniform as his WhatsApp profile picture, thanked Mothupi in a July 4 email for facilitating their placement.

We were welcomed so warmly. I felt the spirit of ubuntu in that school. I even cried thinking we still have people who are concerned about the life of our children so much.

—  Beauty Letswalo

“What has been a rollercoaster of events turned into a happy ending for us, especially our two minor children, because of the ACDP.” 

“The children have been placed in a catch-up programme and the support from the teachers, the deputy principal and principal has been out of this world. They [the children] are coping so far,” he said.

The Gauteng education department and Greenside High did not respond to queries about the placements, but Beauty Letswalo told TimesLIVE Premium they were called to a meeting with senior departmental officials in June after they unsuccessfully tried enrolling their children at Roosevelt High.  

“After this meeting a senior official personally dropped off application forms at our house. He said they were going to take our children to Greenside High.”

She said they received a royal welcome when they arrived at the school.

“We were welcomed so warmly. I felt the spirit of ubuntu in that school. I even cried thinking we still have people who are concerned about the lives of our children.”

She said the staff “are on board to help my children with everything”, adding, “They opened their hearts to my children and I saw God’s love in the staff.”

“They said they were ready to help with catch-up programmes. Now we will be able to sleep in peace.”

She thanked the ACDP, including Mothupi, for its help.

“My children are going to pass this year even though they have missed half the year’s work. They are so ready to start lessons and catch up with lost lessons.”

Modjadji said she was “very excited” to be placed at Greenside High after being at home since January. “I never thought I would get a place this year,” she said.

Mojalefa said though they missed a lot of schoolwork, they would catch up. “We will both definitely pass at the end of the year.”

According to court documents, Northcliff received 894 applications for grade 8 this year and 294 pupils were placed.