BY OBAKENG MAJE

The North West Education and Sport Development, MEC Maphefo Matsemela came to the rescue of the Matloding community after learners have been away from school for a period of 35 days.

This peaceful resolution follows a series of meetings held between the officials of the department and the community which failed to yield positive results.

Since May 2015, the Matloding community embarked on a massive strike to demand a High school in their area. They prevented learners from going to school, burned local clinic, barricaded all roads within the village and destroyed a number of public properties in their area.

They complained about their children whom they alleged were ill-treated and beaten by other learners at Marumuloa Middle School and Mothibinyane Secondary School in Tshidilamolomo Village, which is 12 kilometres away from their area.

MEC Matsemela met with the community at a packed community hall of Matloding, which was attended by hundreds of people from the area. Tension was written on the wall when the meeting started and all speakers from the community spoke in one language to say,” We are very concerned about our children who are sitting at home and not attending school. We want the department to help us in taking them back to school in Logageng Village not in Tshidilamolomo”.

In responding to the concerns of the community MEC Matsemela assured them that, this is a government which listens to the people and surely it will assist them.

“As of tomorrow we are going to take learners to Logageng according to the demands made by parents. We are also going to establish a task team, which will come up with a permanent solution to the problem. The task team should report back to the community in October about progress registered. The department will in the meantime implement the recovery plan so that the learners can catch up for the lost time in class”, said MEC Matsemela.

The community agreed to release children tomorrow to go back to school and thanked the department for listening to their concerns. MEC Matsemela closed the meeting by requesting the community to join her in removing stones and trees used to blockade the roads.

-TDN

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