Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi led a delegation of department officials and police to clamp down on the illegal operations.
Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi inspected and closed two illegal schools in Ivory Park on 8 October 2020. Picture: Abigail Javier/EWN
IVORY PARK – Close to 20 people have now been arrested in connection with illegal schools in Ivory Park next to Tembisa.
Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi has led a delegation of department officials and police to clamp down on the operations.
The MEC visited two schools in Tembisa, with one running several branches in the area.
The department said Tembisa had been hit by a wave of bogus schools, with thousands of pupils receiving inadequate education and passing grades with unrecognised qualifications.
Lesufi visited the True Grace Christian Combined School, which was built just two weeks ago.
The school has two toilets for over 1,000 pupils while parents said they had been paying school fees.
“I pay R1,200,” one parent said. “Even the first time I was not sure about the school and now I just found out that we have been paying school fees for nothing.”
Lesufi has ordered the school to be closed with immediate effect.
“We can’t allow a situation where people do as they wish. Those who are responsible for these things must be arrested.”
WATCH: Panyaza Lesufi gets strict with illegal schools in Ivory Park
The police’s Bernard Matimulane said several people, including a principal, security guards and educators, had been arrested.
“We will be verifying whether they are in the country legally and the principal will also be charged with the security who are not registered. And they will hopefully appear in the Tembisa Magistrates Court tomorrow.”
With about two months left of the academic year, the department said it would find placements for the pupils.
