Following a meeting between Grade 8 parents from Parktown Boys’ High and the Gauteng Education Department, MEC Panyaza Lesufi says that all stakeholders agreed that the reputation of the school has to be protected. The school has come under fire following the death of 13-year-old Enock Mpianzi, who drowned at a camp organised by the school.
Earlier, the Gauteng Education Department says it had to respect the wishes of the parents of Parktown Boys’ High School learners. This after members of the media and parents of former learners, were asked to leave a parents’ meeting of the school at Wits University’s Education Campus in Johannesburg on Friday.
WATCH | Media denied entrance at Parktown Boys’ pic.twitter.com/aHcW6xBHds
— SABC News Online (@SABCNewsOnline) January 24, 2020
Lesufi was meeting with parents following the death.
Department spokesperson Steve Mabona says a few parents raised concerns about the presence of the media.
“There are few parents that raised the issue with us to say, ‘we do not understand why you invited the media. We thought that this is a parents’ meeting, the SGB, the Department and the school.’ So we then said that as a matter of principle, we can’t ignore it when it’s raised by parents because this is their meeting.”
This is not the first time that the school has been in the news. In 2018, a water polo coach was sentenced to 23 years in jail for abusing young boys.
One of the parents that was chased away, Michelle Hobkirk says it looks as if there are more cover-ups.
“It’s getting boring doing this because last year (2019) and the year before Mr Panyaza [Lesufi] commissioned Mr Molebatse to investigate claims by children and the MEC admitted prima facie evidence, it was all true. We still have not gotten that report. That’s the same SGB that’s trying to cover it up.”
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