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Woensdag, 22 Julie 2020 | Tel: 021 910 6500 | e-pos: nuus@tygerburger.co.za
@TygerBurger
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Two local parks get ‘grabbed’ City officials condemned land invasion in strongly-worded statements after the apparent grabbing of land at two City parks in Wallacedene last week. Mayco member for community services and health, Zahid Badroodien, says the invasion of City property and land prohibits effective service delivery and the development of open spaces. At the site in Wallacedene (pictured) play equipment was damaged, and thrown in the streets, which posed a health hazard for children, he says.
MONUMENT PARK: PRINCIPAL ‘STILL INVESTIGATED’
The lowdown on allegations THABANG KUAHO @thab_journo
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nvestigations into allegations of mismanagement from Monument Park High School principal Karel Stevens are ongoing, the provincial education department says. In a response to a media enquiry sent by TygerBurger, spokesperson for the department, Millicent Merton, says it cannot give out any information while investigations continue. She could also not disclose whether any more allegations have been made against the principal. TygerBurger is in possession of emails from disgruntled employees of the school, past and present, to the department’s powers that be. The documents include allegations as well
as minutes to meetings disgruntled employees had with both Stevens and the department on their frustrations. This comes after a previous article wherein an anonymous source shared their experience at the school under Stevens’s reign. (“Principal accused of nepotism, TygerBurger, 18 March). The source made allegations of nepotism, mismanagement and disregard of the bursary policy, among others. Numerous attempts to reach Stevens for comment yielded no positive results. The department, however, responded on his behalf. On allegations that Stevens had used his power as principal to have his daughter, among five other relatives, hired as a teacher, Merton says the appointment was not made by him. “The principal’s daughter had been appo-
inted as a substitute educator by an independent recruitment and selection committee of the school’s governing body,” she explains. Another allegation was that the principal had a bursary awarded to his other daughter, who is a learner at the school, when there were more deserving learners than her. The original purpose of the bursaries at the school, says Merton, was to draw the top 10 outstanding academic and sports learners from feeder schools. “The principal’s daughter was offered a bursary by the previous governing body in 2018. She was the second best learner in the Grade 11 group for 2019. “The principal’s daughter qualifies to be a bursary holder of the school,” she says. The source claimed that Stevens mistreats teachers and threatens them with their jobs when he’s confronted. “The school has had teachers resigning,
some taking lower-salary jobs just to get away from the treatment,” the source said. Merton says Stevens denied threatening or victimising staff members. “Educators resigned for personal reasons,” she says. She says the school is functioning well in terms of administration and performance, a statement that disregards claims that matric pass rates have dropped annually since Stevens took over as head of the school. One of the employees that resigned from her duties at the school apparently because of the allegations, heeded the call from TygerBurger for comment. “The situation at the school at that time was emotionally draining. Every decision was taken secretly without the teachers knowing anything,” she says. “Many teachers were so frustrated because the leadership of the school was not approachable at all,” she concluded.