Lesufi faces probe over ‘attempts to remove Afrikaans’ from schools
Gauteng Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi’s alleged attempts to drive Afrikaans out of the schools will be scrutinised by the Gauteng Legislature.
The Freedom Front Plus has laid 272 complaints against Lesufi over his alleged improper conduct.
The party alleges that Lesufi had unlawfully made attempts to remove Afrikaans from the province’s schools.
The papers were filed with the Integrity Commissioner of the Gauteng Legislature on Monday.
“We want to see that Mr. Lesufi is brought to order and reprimanded for his actions,” says the party’s Philip van Staden.
The provincial education department is currently studying the submissions made to the amendments to the public school admissions regulations.
The regulations state that, among other things, a pupil may not be refused admission on any grounds that constitute unfair discrimination.
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Regulations which the party believes to be discriminatory.
“We brought these charges against Lesufi because he’s in contravention of Section 29 of the Constitution which states that everyone has a right to be taught in their mother tongue,” argues Van Staden.
Lesufi reacted with disgust at the complaints, accusing the party of driving a personal vendetta against him.
“It's a time-wasting exercise. It is just reckless statement and using unfounded documents to allege that I am anti-Afrikaans. I am not anti-Afrikaans.”
ALSO READ: Lesufi denies targeting Afrikaans
In July, the Constitutional Court dismissed an appeal by Lesufi in the Hoërskool Overvaal admission battle which stated that the school did not have the capacity to enrol 55 additional English-speaking pupils.
“I differ from FF Plus because they want tax payers to fund their privileges than rather opening all ours schools to all our South Africans,” says Lesufi.