Parents at a primary school
in Swaziland want the principal to quit after turning poor pupils away.
It happened at Mkhuzweni
Primary where Principal Zanele Dlamini is reported to have excluded children
from school because they could not afford school uniform, a white T-shirt, shoe
polish and maintain a clean haircut.
The Swazi Observer reported on Friday (3 November 2017) that more than
100 angry parents demanded the principal to resign within seven days or they would
‘take the law into their own hands’.
The school committee had
arranged for parents to meet Dlamini who had only recently joined the school.
The newspaper reported, ‘The
parents minced no words as each stood up to condemn the principal and her
deputy for chasing away their children from school.’
It reported one parent
saying, ‘It is hurtful, you don’t have
humanity and sympathy for our children. The former headteacher Mavundla
understood our situation and our poverty, we are not working hence we cannot
even afford to feed the children how much more shoe polish?’
The deputy head teacher and
the principal denied mistreating the pupils.
Poverty among
schoolchildren is widespread in Swaziland. In September 2017, it was reported
that poverty was forcing girls to drop out of school and
become sex workers.
The
Times of Swaziland reported the girls could not afford school fees or
uniforms, so some dropped out. Others stayed at school but also worked as
prostitutes.
The newspaper featured Gija Emkhuzweni High School at
Piggs Peak. The Times reported, ‘It
has been revealed that even pupils in lower classes at the school are engaging
in such trade, with most of them blaming the high poverty levels as the main
reason.’
In Swaziland, nearly seven in 10 of the kingdom’s 1.3
million people have incomes of less than $US2 a day. Meanwhile, King Mswati
III, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch lives a
lavish lifestyle, with at least 13 palaces, fleets of top-of-the-range Mercedes
Benz and BMW cars and at least one Rolls Royce. He has a private jet airplane
and is soon
to get a second.
See also
SWAZI CHILDREN’S RIGHTS ABUSED
POVERTY FORCES GIRLS INTO SEX WORK
NO
LET UP IN SWAZI POVERTY
SWAZI GOVT. FAILS ON POVERTY: OXFAM
https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/swazi-govt-fails-on-poverty-oxfam.html
