Mojalefa Letswalo, 14, and his sister, Modjadji, 13, have been putting on their uniforms and going to Northcliff High in Johannesburg since schools reopened on Tuesday.
But unlike the other pupils, they haven’t attended a single lesson — instead, they have been braving the stares of visitors and fellow pupils as they sit in the reception area and read.
The siblings, who have not seen the inside of a classroom since January, have been desperately trying to enrol in grade 8 since the online admissions system opened on August 10 last year.
The teenagers completed grade 7 at Risidale Primary last year, which is about 2.6km from Northcliff High.
Their mother, Beauty Letswalo, 56, said the nightmare started after going to the Gauteng education department’s offices on August 10 to apply for admission for her children.
Their choices of schools were Northcliff High and Rand Park High.
She said the biggest problem was verifying their address because the system picked up one in Cosmo City, Roodepoort, though they have never lived there. They have been living in Windsor West, north of Northcliff, for 20 years.
Two of Letswalo’s daughters from a previous marriage, Busisiwe Ndhlovu and Zandile Ndhlovu, the country’s first black free-diving instructor, matriculated at Northcliff High.
Letswalo said an official assured her that issues concerning the address had been rectified and would automatically update on the system.
She then received a call from Northcliff High in August asking her to resubmit the documents, which she said she did twice after visiting the school.
The reason given was ‘the school was filled by children that reside near the school’
— Beauty Letswalo
Letswalo said she was again asked for proof of residence and submitted a letter from her bank, a sworn affidavit signed at a police station stating they were residents in Windsor West, and a letter from a ward councillor.
“The landlord could not help because of a dispute between us which ended in court and was dismissed. We had differences with the landlord and he doesn’t want to give us a contract. We share the house.”
She said she was a registered voter in ward 98.
Letswalo also alerted Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi to the problem in an email dated September 30 which the Sunday Times has seen. She said Lesufi did not respond to the email.
In November, Letswalo discovered while checking the status of the applications that her children had been declined places at Northcliff High.
“The reason given was ‘the school was filled by children that reside near the school’.”
The number of applications who submitted proof of residence
— 321,768
She lodged a dispute and subsequently an appeal explaining that they lived about 2km away, but it was also declined.
An official informed Letswalo in a WhatsApp message, seen by the Sunday Times, that the children were numbers 523 and 524 on the waiting list at Northcliff High.
The message read, “Northcliff really beyond capacity — cannot squeeze two more. Cannot jump other parents on the list.”
Mojalefa said he was “angry and disappointed”, adding: “We go to Northcliff High in the hope we will be admitted. We want to go to that school because it’s close to where we stay and it has good teachers. We feel we have been denied the right to education.”
The number of grade 1 pupils placed at Gauteng schools
— 146,868
He said he was missing maths, his favourite subject.
The family said they will continue with their sit-in at the school until “the children are in class”.
Motheo Brodie from public interest law centre Section27, confirmed Letswalo asked for help in getting her children admitted at Northcliff High.
“The Gauteng education department informed us that the address she used was not where she was living and therefore she could not get space at Northcliff High,” Brodie said. He said district officials told Section 27 that both children had been offered places at Ferndale High.
The number of grade 8 pupils placed at Gauteng schools
— 201,562
“We advised her on February 10 of this and advised her to communicate with the district officials directly and to let us know if there were any issues.”
Brodie said he was contacted by Letswalo again this week, indicating her children were still not in school.
“We are contacting the district to establish why the children have not been admitted.”
Gauteng education spokesperson Steve Mabona said the pupils had been offered a place at Ferndale High.
"However, she refused this offer. We encourage her to take up this alternative offer as it still stands," he said.
However Letswalo said this was "laughable" as the deputy principal at Northcliff had called Ferndale this week, but had been told there was no space for them.
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