Fedsas Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Jaco Deacon, tells OFM News they believe that the decision to suspend schooling should not be a blanket one and the issue needs to be addressed on a case-by-case basis. 

He says if the school is located in a hotspot area and teaching staff and learners are infected, then a decision needs to be made in consultation with the Department of Education and the Health Department in that province on whether to close or not. 

Deacon says: “It doesn’t make sense to close a school in Alexander Bay if the issue is in Bloemfontein. I think it should be up to that school to decide. And the current directives make provision that schools can deviate or close depending on the risk in that specific area.”

On Thursday Malema gave Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga an ultimatum via a media conference, that schools in the country need to be closed within seven days or the EFF will do just that themselves. 

Meanwhile, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has announced that South Africa has breached the 9 000 new cases per day mark and entered the third wave of the pandemic. 

Fedsas is also advocating for all educators to be prioritised for vaccination as soon as possible.

OFM News