Eastern Cape principal ‘excused’ from post after ‘asking primary school learners to clean up faeces’

The principal from Masakhane Primary School in Seven Fountains has been “excused” from school until the Eastern Cape Department of Education can wrap up an investigation into an incident where she allegedly asked young learners to take a bucket full of faeces from her office to the school toilets.

Mahlubandile Kuhlane, the chairperson of the Unemployed People’s Movement in Makhanda, said the organisation was asked to help after parents’ complaints that the incident had not been taken as seriously as the alleged incident warranted.

He said the incident happened in mid-June, just before the school closed for the holidays. A parent of one of the children reported the incident to the police shortly after the incident, but no action was taken against the principal, Kuhlane said. While the education department had promised to investigate, Kuhlane said the principal remained at the school.

‘Humiliating’

“She instructed the children, the learners, to take human faeces from her office and take it to the toilet. We find this very humiliating, especially to the learners who are very young. The people from Seven Fountains really feel very humiliated and very angered. We are here to support them. We feel their concern and their pain over the humiliation that they have suffered,” he said.

Masakhane Primary School is a small farm school. The education department and the community have ruled out that the incident with the bucket was some bizarre form of protest, saying that both the school and the communities had proper sanitation.

“We are hoping that the department will take this very seriously,” Kuhlane said.

He said that the education department had been reluctant to act during the Unemployed People Movement’s first engagement over the incident,  saying that there had been no complaints from the parents. However, a parent confirmed that they had opened a criminal charge under child protection laws. 

“Our goal for today was that the principal should be suspended,” Kuhlane said. He said the organisation had staged a protest since no action had been taken after a meeting held before the school holidays.

“The department was very defensive. There was a meeting that took place on the day before the school was closed for the holidays. What bothers me is that she is a mother, too,” he added.

He said the protest was attended by just over 100 people. Some parents couldn’t attend because they worked on farms, and in Makhanda.

He described the engagement with the department as fruitful and said officials also promised to send a social worker to counsel the children. 

Kuhlane said everyone was baffled that a bucket of faeces was in the principal’s office. No explanation had been given.

Eastern Cape Department of Education spokesperson Mboxela Ceduma said the children’s treatment had been “extremely inhumane”.

“We have received the report from the district office and the investigation will possibly start tomorrow,” she said. As the investigation is now happening, the principal has been excused from school until a concrete report is available.”

Daily Maverick has asked the school principal for comment, but is yet to receive a response. DM