South African safety fears force parents in Cape Town to seek former white-only schools

Fears of crime and gang violence in the famous towns on the outskirts of the city of Cape Town in South Africa, forcing some parents to make difficult decisions to send their children in long daily schools to previous white schools only.

“The thugs will go to the school carrying weapons threatening teachers, and they take laptops strongly in front of the learners,” Sibal Mbassana told the BBC about the school whose children are used to joining in Khilasha, the largest town in Cape Town.

“Imagine that your child suffers from it regularly. There is no guarantee in school, and even if there is, it is unable to do anything.”

More than three decades have passed since the end of rule in South Africa in South Africa, but there are still black students who have to withstand extensive inequality that was the racist basis in the apartheid system.

Mrs. MBASANA feels that her three children inherited this legacy – which particularly affects her older son Livalitho, who was in a town school between the ages of six and ten.

One of the main laws of the Apartheid era was the 1953 Panto Education Law, which aims to prevent black children from reaching their full potential. This created separate schools with lower financing and lower resources for who are in poor areas, which to this day are crowded and often suffer from the repercussions of high crime, drug use and violence.

Mrs. Mbasana, who grew up in the eastern province of Cape and moved to Khilasha when she was eighteen years old, had no choice but to transfer Lifalethu, who is now 12 years old, and her other son Anil, 11, to a government school about 40 kilometers (25 miles) in Simon, which is located on the island engraved on the island that is famous for South Africa.

The boys joined their seven -year -old sister, who has better facilities and sizes of smaller classes.

“I said to myself [that] Bohil was not going to do so [local] The school because I have already endured many things with the boys when they were in that school. “ He said 34 -year -old designer.

She and her husband loves to transfer their family away from Khilasha completely.

“We do not want to live in the town, but we have to live here because we cannot go out,” she said.

“He spoke to anyone in the town and will tell you that they will go out at the first opportunity if they can.”

There is no doubt that there are town schools, led by insight managers and teachers who work hard, who have miraculously despite the obstacles to weak infrastructure and large semesters sizes.

However, safety and security has proven that it cannot be overcome for some when, for example, gangs require a protection fee from teachers.

Groundup News reported that teachers at Zanemfundo Elementary School in Philippi East, near Khayelitsha, are required to pay 10 % of their salaries to blackmail who seemed to be working without punishment.

“This is not at all safe. We are at great danger,” one of the teachers told Groundup.

“These gangs come to the school that is going in school. Our life is at risk. Teachers at the school ask for transportation because they do not feel safe.”

According to the Ministry of Education in Western Cape, a private security company will now be stationed in school and the police is running nearby.

However, similar incidents occurred in five other schools in the surrounding areas of Niana, Felipe and Samura Mashael.

“My husband Sepho works in the navy in Simon and travels there, so I thought he would be safer and more comfortable for my children to go to that school.”

But the longest transmitted, often by bus or small taxis, to the safest schools with their risks and pressure.

“My children wake up at about 4:30 am and leave at 5.50 am when Sepho will transport them. When they go on the bus, because Sepho may work elsewhere, they leave by 5.30 o’clock and prepare home by 4.30 pm.”

“They are always tired and want to sleep. They are strong because they are doing their duty, but they sleep at a time most early than other children.”

Lifalethu topped the headlines of national newspapers last year when there was a feverish search for it after he was forced to walk home from Simon to Khilasha, where the bus he took regularly refused to enter because he was unable to find his ticket.

The driver concerned was then suspended for the violation company policy, which requires employees to help schoolchildren in the uniform who lost their tickets.

With the fall of the darkness, the lady was Mbasana The worst nightmare when Anil called to say that his older brother was not allowed on board.

But the huge social media madness followed it, and on several strikes of good luck, it was found – in one of the stages, the boy was granted an elevator by a good Samaritan who removed him at a gas station, about 5 kilometers from his home.

From there, he was accompanying him on foot, a security guard who lived in his area before he was captured and took home for his comfortable family by police officers who joined him.

His case highlighted the ordeal of thousands of students from the towns, some of whom make a round and forth trip up to 80 km per day, whether in public transportation or pre -trips with small taxis to join the school in the suburban areas of the city – which were only used to accept white students in the era of apartheid.

The wealthiest residents of these suburbs often choose a special education for their descendants, which means that public schools there tend to have spaces for those who come from other places.

Donovan Williams, deputy director of the State Elementary School in the Modern Observatory area in Cape Town, says about 85 % of his school’s eating includes about 830 students who come from the towns – many of them exhaust their long days.

“Some parents work in the region, while most of them spend a lot of money on transportation for their children to reach schools with a better infrastructure,” he told the BBC.

“Sometimes they sleep in the classroom.”

According to Amnesty International, South Africa has one of the most unequal school systems in the world – with the results of the child that largely depends on their birthplace, wealth and skin color.

Its report said in 2020: “In the best 200 schools in mathematics discrimination than children in 6600 coming schools combined. The field of play must be settled.”

Public schools are supported, but parents still have to pay school fees, which can range from $ 60 (45 pounds) and $ 4,500 (3,350 pounds) annually.

Among nearly 1700 schools across the province, more than 100 unqualified institutions, as the government has identified for learners who live in economic depression.

The boycott of the boycott explains that it must often cover the deficit of financing from the government – and schools in middle -class areas are more transformed into parents to cover costs.

Recently, 2407 educational jobs have lost in the province as the government has allocated only 64 % of the cost of the negotiating wage agreement at the national level with teachers, WARED said.

Disclosure of jobs means that some contract teachers were not resets when their contracts ended in December, while some permanent teachers were asked to transfer schools.

“We are in an impossible situation, not our manufacture, and Western Cape is not the only affected boycott,” WESED added.

The National Teachers Organization in South Africa (NAptosa) says that the decision was particularly destroyed for schools in poor and renewed areas.

“Schools that feel the real influence of this are your typical school for the town. They cannot replace these teachers with the dates of government and the body, and this is the case with schools with best resources where parents can pay additional fees,” Basil Manuel, CEO of NAptosa told BBC.

“They feel cut off, they will have a larger category sizes, and they will have the teachers who are emphasized.

“Children, especially those who are not academic, will succeed through cracks.”

Experts blame the ongoing educational variations on the debts inherited by the African National Congress in Nelson Mandela in 1994 from the apartheid system.

“The African National Congress Party had to face the fact that it was unable to provide it in the way he said.and BBC said.

He said that “poor schools have never been given an opportunity to develop a sustainable platform for teaching and learning” in the face of financial austerity “has never been given an opportunity to develop a sustainable platform for teaching and learning.”

“Political interest has been lost in what is happening in the town’s schools 20 years ago. When it comes to teachers’ expenses and teachers, you can see how this sector has been neglected. The numbers of teachers in those schools still bear the weight of discounts.”

Professor Fatar is budy of the same extent about the future: “I cannot see, a miracle ban, how we can increase the financial affairs of poor schools.”

Parents such as Mabbasanas, stuck in the towns and often at the mercy of the gangs, ran out of patience.