Tensions ran high as the leadership from the disability community in the province today clashed with the police when they momentarily took control of the troubled Vukuhambe Special School in Mdantsane by locking the school’s gates, demanding immediate intervention to the crisis at the school.
Close to 50 members from various organisations representing disabled people such as Deaf SA, Epilepsy SA, SA National Council for the Blind and the Eastern Cape Disability Economic Empowerment Trust (ECDEE) entered the school’s premises and used a chain and padlock to lock the gates behind them.
The members who formed a human-chain behind the locked gates vowed only to open the gates for the MEC of education, Mandla Makupula or the education superintendent-general, Themba Kojana, who they expect to bring solutions.
However, their plans were derailed when police officers who were called to the scene, allegedly by the principal, broke their chain with a bolt cutter.
The actions by the members comes after the Dispatch reported on the schools crisis, where 92 disabled pupils who live in the school’s hostel have been left unattended on weekends due to a go-slow by non-teaching staff.
Tensions high as community clashes with police at special school
Image: SIBONGILE NGALWA
Tensions ran high as the leadership from the disability community in the province today clashed with the police when they momentarily took control of the troubled Vukuhambe Special School in Mdantsane by locking the school’s gates, demanding immediate intervention to the crisis at the school.
Close to 50 members from various organisations representing disabled people such as Deaf SA, Epilepsy SA, SA National Council for the Blind and the Eastern Cape Disability Economic Empowerment Trust (ECDEE) entered the school’s premises and used a chain and padlock to lock the gates behind them.
The members who formed a human-chain behind the locked gates vowed only to open the gates for the MEC of education, Mandla Makupula or the education superintendent-general, Themba Kojana, who they expect to bring solutions.
However, their plans were derailed when police officers who were called to the scene, allegedly by the principal, broke their chain with a bolt cutter.
The actions by the members comes after the Dispatch reported on the schools crisis, where 92 disabled pupils who live in the school’s hostel have been left unattended on weekends due to a go-slow by non-teaching staff.
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