Corpun file 5829 at www.corpun.com

ANC News Briefs, 19 June 2000

ACDP bemoans lack of skills, discipline among youth

CAPE TOWN, 16 June 2000 Sapa -- The South African nation was currently sitting on an explosive situation occasioned by ill-equipped, unskilled and undisciplined youth, African Christian Democratic Party MP Mighty Madasa said in a statement on Friday.

In the ACDP's Youth Day commemoration message, Madasa said while apartheid, poverty and unemployment were to blame for this, the main concern was about government policies which were not helping alleviate the situation.

Madasa said the state was passing laws and formulating policies which "wittingly or unwittingly" exacerbated the situation.

"Our country has legalised abortion and the equality law recognises homosexual sexual liaisons and equates them to a marriage relationship. We are speaking of the need to legalise prostitution, which is certainly not the answer to unemployment," he said.

Madasa said the removal of religious traditions and the banning of corporal punishment at schools were all done in the name of being a caring society.

"Yet the response of the youth to this vacuum of discipline has been demands for the removal of rectors, burning and destroying of school property, beating up students who want to learn and resorting to crime and gangsterism."

Corpun file 8567 at www.corpun.com

Daily News, Durban, 22 June 2000

KZN school continues use of cane

By Sibonelo Msomi

Despite Education Minister Kader Asmal's recent criticism of the use of corporal punishment at schools during his "voyage of discovery" early this month to a KwaZulu-Natal school, the cane is still being used at the school. Asmal dropped in unexpectedly at Umlazi's Velabahleke High School to establish how the school was functioning. The progress was impressive and the school had achieved a 100 percent matric pass-rate last year. But he also discovered that corporal punishment was still being used at the school: a cane was found in the office of the principal, Mbongeni Mtshali.

Asmal criticised the use of corporal punishment, saying that educators should find new ways to discipline pupils. The South African Schools Act and the KwaZulu-Natal Schools Act prohibit the use of corporal punishment at schools.

Teachers at the school, however, have not found new ways to discipline pupils and still use corporal punishment. "But we do not abuse our pupils; we punish them with love and they consent to this," said deputy principal Dumisani Dlamini.

But at Comtech High School in the township, they do without corporal punishment and remain at the top. Last year, the school obtained a 100 percent pass rate. The principal, Lucky Luthuli, said his secret lay in instilling pride in pupils. "In the first six weeks of the first term, I ask them why they are at school, making them realise the importance of education. At the same time, I ask them about their expectations."

Education spokesperson Mandla Msibi said Velabahleke was breaking the law. "The department's stand on corporal punishment is clear. It is not allowed at schools."