The FF Plus expects the ANC to pay out of its own pocket for the repair of the primary school in Katlehong that was set on fire by residents who demand electricity. The FF Plus has warned Parliament numerous times that schools need to be protected against protesters who damage property to show their discontent with a matter, which is usually poor service delivery.
The FF Plus also submitted a bill to Parliament that aims to amend the Regulation of Gatherings Act so as to ensure that protest actions are prohibited from taking place within 500 metres of a school or any other institution where there are minors present.
The ANC did not adopt the bill seeing as the party is of the opinion that the Act must be amended in its entirety. The police argued that the Act is under review and that the FF Plus’s proposed amendment must first be put on ice.
But in the interim schools are being torn down, as the FF Plus pointed out in Parliament. It is ironic that Parliament and even the Union Buildings, where the elected officials who are supposed to serve the public have their offices, are protected by this Act. The Act does place a restriction on protest actions in the vicinity of these buildings.
Thus, Members of Parliament and the executive authority are being protected against the very public who they are failing, particularly with regard to service delivery, but vulnerable children and the communities at schools do not have the same kind of protection.
Therefore, the FF Plus is of the opinion that the ANC must pay out of its own pocket for the damage to the school in Katlehong as well as any other school that was damaged during protest actions.
Another negative consequence of the fact that schools are damaged is that it places extra pressure on existing schools – particularly Afrikaans schools – to accommodate the learners from the schools that can no longer be operational.
Even worse than the damage to the school buildings are the trauma and physical danger that the learners are exposed to when their school is advanced upon and vandalised by a riotous group of protesters.
If the government wants to prevent damage to schools, it must adopt the FF Plus’s bill as it will empower the police to take action against protests and riots within a specific radius of schools to ensure that these schools are not vandalised.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Adv Anton Alberts on FF Plus
South Africa Today – South Africa News
