Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi is likely to set the cat among the pigeons for saying he supports a “strong review” of the law that banned corporal punishment in schools.
The use of corporal punishment in schools was outlawed in 1996.
He shared this view during a meeting of parents of pupils of Fred Norman Secondary School in Johannesburg on Tuesday, after an incident where a teacher told a pupil’s granny she “did not like coloureds”.
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During a video recording of the meeting, which was recorded by Priya Ranchod, a journalist from the Eldorado Times, she asked Lesufi if “there was a way we can actually bring discipline back” in schools.
He responded: “When you say discipline, you say the cane.
“Let’s be honest, you are putting it nicely, it’s the cane, and I say if government is a government of people, it must listen to the people.
“I am saying we passed these laws [outlawing corporal punishment] because we had a vision of pupils who are well behaved. We never thought we will have these kinds of pupils when the law was passed.
“Now that we know, is it not possible to say ...” he stopped mid-sentence, then continued, “OK, I will be ....” and stopped again, drawing laughter from the crowd.
“But I am for the strong review of that. I know I differ with many people, I differ with human rights people. If you can’t install the authority of the teacher, you have no education, you have no education.”
Lesufi said that during a meeting with district directors on Tuesday to discuss preparations for the matric exams, “the teachers are saying pupils are not coming to school. Who must we teach when they are not there?”
It’s quick to blame those that are here [teachers]. They are trained to be teachers; they are not trained to be policemen or policewomen or monitor people that come into the classroom drunk or smoking.
— Panyaza Lesufi, Gauteng education MEC
A community member working for a security company told Lesufi: “It’s a very big concern ... sometimes we are called to separate fights. There was a fight in Lenasia South. Two students were fighting and we separated the fight.”
The community member said they took the pupils to class, adding: “You know what the answer was from the teachers. They said ‘you should have left them to beat one another’.”
Lesufi said children come from families and communities. “It’s quick to blame those that are here [teachers]. They are trained to be teachers; they are not trained to be policemen or policewomen or monitor people that come into the classroom drunk or smoking or any other thing. I am asking for a joint responsibility programme rather than a finger-pointing programme.”
Ella Mokgalane, CEO of the SA Council for Educators (Sace), who was responding to a separate media query from TimesLIVE Premium on corporal punishment, said they “discourage in the strongest possible terms the abuse of assault in any manner”.
“Corporal abuse remains outlawed and should not be applied on any pupil in our schools or outside our schools.”
Faranaaz Veriava, head of education at Section 27 said: “If the MEC is implying that we should bring back corporal punishment, then that is extremely disappointing.”
“We know that the ban was premised on moving from a culture of authoritarianism to a culture where the rights of every human being, including the rights to be free of physical harm, would be respected.”
Said Veriava: “Our concern is that where pupils are corporally punished, they are often severely harmed and injured. There’s a lot of literature and training mechanisms for ensuring discipline in the classroom.”
She said there were overcrowded classrooms and teachers “who aren’t trained to deal properly with the kind of issues they are facing in the classroom”.
“Bringing back the cane is not going to solve any problem. In fact, from what the research shows, it will just create more harm than good.”
Neither Lesufi nor his department had responded to media enquiries at the time of publication.
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