To Khutsong residents: You're not more South African

By Madibeng Kgwete: posted on 13 August 2007

Grade 12 pupils in Khutsong were this past weekend taken to a camp in Taung, in the North West Povince, where they are expected to catch-up on their school work, following months of school boycott.

All the drama follows uprisings in their township related to government’s decision to place their area under the administration of the North West Provincial Government.

The ugly situation in Khustong, which is attributed to the demarcation saga, is very sad if one considers the damage the dispute has brought not only to public property, but also to the future of learners in that area.

Those responsible for the chaos are setting a dangerous precedent, encouraging the use of force and disruptions to the smooth running of the country. Clearly, the people are being misled, and the misleader/s is/are getting away with murder.

What kind of a country are we living in, where children are denied access to education because the people of the area in which they live are embroiled in a conflict with government on demarcation issues? This is pure lawlessness. It is really disgusting.

How special are the people of Khutsong when it comes to service delivery? Whoever is responsible for the chaos (all in the name of “service delivery”) must know that all of South Africa ’s people, from Cape Town to Musina, have the same needs as they. They are not more South African than the rest of us.

In the municipality where I come from, the Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality in the Limpopo Province , people are in dire need of the very basic of services, ranging from clean water, electricity, tarred roads to schools. Most parts of Khutosng have all of that, but look what they are doing? It is shameful.

Not so long ago, black people were out on the streets, fighting for equal rights, amongst them the right to education. Today, 13 short years down the line, the same black people are out on the streets, preventing their own children from attending school. How quickly things change!

The prevention of learners from attending school is totally unbecoming in a country where the number of educated black people with post-graduate qualifications is still unacceptably low, where pass rate amongst Grade 12 learners went down last year.

Former President Nelson Mandela once described education as “the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. Clearly, the people responsible for the chaos in Khutsong do not share the same view.

It is one thing to blame government for lack of proper consultation. It is quite another thing to make young children bear the high cost of such blame game and disagreements.

Because of the showdown between the so-called concerned residents and government, taxpayers' money is now being used to transport and accommodate children far away from the parental supervision they still need.

Imagine the sort of environment the learners have been moved to. Imagine adolescents staying in a camp far away from their parents. Instead of producing the good academic results they have been relocated to produce at the end of the year, some learners will produce positive pregnancy tests. All this because they have been forced out of their area by the very adults they are supposed to learn from.

All those responsible for preventing Khutsong learners from going to shcool must not only be ashamed of themselves, but they must also be held accountable for their highly disruptive behaviour. Shame on them.