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KZN government investigating allegations of police brutality at a High School

Police
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The KwaZulu-Natal Education Department says it is investigating allegations of police brutality following a clash between police and grade 12 learners at the Nqabakazulu High School in KwaMashu in Durban.

Pupils are demanding that all learners and teachers be tested for the coronavirus after a teacher tested positive. Yesterday, police allegedly dispersed protesting learners by firing rubber bullets, injuring three. One learner was arrested but later released.

Provincial Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu has confirmed that only those who have been in close contact with the COVID-19 positive teacher, will be tested, and not the entire school.

“We are not testing everybody. The people who will be tested are those who had close contact with that teacher. We have had an agreement with the Department of Health that you can’t send a teacher for 14 days to check if they have symptoms, we have lost so much time. Now learners are going back to the classroom. The situation will go back to normality. We will also investigate allegations of police’s heavy-handedness with learners. We have seen visuals of some learners being hit by rubber bullets and videos of them manhandling learners,” says Mshengu.

‘Unsafe schools’

On Tuesday, the Educators Union of South Africa (EUSA) reiterated its call for teachers not to return to work. The union says some of its members have contracted COVID-19 and some have already died. It is attributing this to ‘unsafe schools that are without Personal Protective Equipment.’

“We are also aware that a number of schools have hidden confirmed COVID-19 cases from their employees in order to keep schools open, this further endangers the lives of teachers and learners in these schools,” said the union in a statement.

Schools reopened for grade 7 and 12s on June 8th after they were shut down to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Grades 3, 6, 10, and 11 are expected to return to school on 6th July. 

EUSA says it is within workers’ rights to refuse to go to work if safety measures are not put in place.

“The employer has a responsibility to provide a safe and healthy working environment for employees and employees can withdraw their labour should they reasonably feel that that is not the case at their workplace. We are unapologetic about this.”

Below are the latest coronavirus statistics: 

 

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