DURBAN - The controversial appointment of a principal at Assegai Primary School in Wentworth has dragged on for four years with no resolution in sight.
In October 2017, a Department of Education (DoE) official accompanied Thenjiwe Ndlovu to the school after her appointment as its new principal. In the days following, the appointment was met with outrage from parents and the school governing body (SGB).
SGB chairperson Andre de Bruin said the department disregarded the decision of the governing body when it appointed Ndlovu.
“Ms Ndlovu did not meet the criteria for the position of principal at any school. Previously she was a Zulu subject teacher at a high school and had never been a head of department or occupied a senior position,” said De Bruin.
“It is four years since the impasse began, and we still do not have an official principal. Meanwhile, the supposed incumbent has moved to Orient High School as a principal. This was a political appointment, which has set back the teaching and learning process at our school,” said De Bruin.
In 2017, a Durban High Court judge issued an interdict prohibiting the SGB and parents from stopping lessons at the school after days of protest action. Gissel Pretorius, whose child attends the school, said the principal was brought in supposedly to steady the ship.
“My question is, how was she supposed to get things back to order when, from what I heard, she was not qualified for the position and speaks only IsiZulu in a mostly coloured neighbourhood,” said Pretorius.
A teacher, who did not want to be named due to fear of victimisation and intimidation, said the stability of the school was compromised the day the appointment was made and had been in a delicate state for years.
“The development of our children has been completely deterred because of the drama that has gone on for years. We are practically on auto-pilot mode and cannot get any developmental processes going,” said the parent.
Warren Napier, a former HR deputy director (teacher provisioning) at the head office in Pietermaritzburg, said he was suspended at the DoE because of his testimony at the arbitration hearing instituted by the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) in October 2018.
“I was subpoenaed to testify to Chapter Three of the Employment of Educators Act. Unfortunately, my testimony went against what the department was doing,” said Napier.
He said the department representatives used an EHR 11 document that was not signed by the governing body to appoint Ndlovu. The document is responsible for the scheduling of candidates between the DoE and a school governing body.
The Daily News is in possession of two documents, one of which was signed by the SGB recommending Odette Abrahams-Field, and a second incomplete (not signed by the SGB) showing Ndlovu as the preferred candidate. “The governing body is supposed to ratify the document. In other words, the SGB says, yes, we agree with this recommendation,” said Napier.
Napier was subsequently suspended for 488 days with pay. He said the head of the department, Enock Nzama usurped the position of the disciplinary committee he was attending and wrote him a dismissal letter. The DoE’s Kwazi Mthethwa dismissed the claim.
Daily News