“MADISONG SECONDARY IS CHAOTIC, WE WANT PRINCIPAL MOOKA BACK,” SAY IRATE PARENTS

Irate parents of Madisong Secondary School in Hammanskraal want suspended principal Bethuel Mooka to be reinstated to the school.

According to one of the parents at the school Phuthi Stanley Kololo, there is no longer discipline at Madisong Secondary School and that they as parents are not satisfied about the performance of the Acting Principal SS Nkoana as learners come to the school later than the scheduled time and after a few minutes they (learners ) would be seen roaming the streets of the area and indulging themselves in drugs and alcohol.

“This school is literally a place of chaos and under principal Mooka the school always managed to obtain a 100% pass rate but under acting principal Nkoana the pass rate has declined terribly,” said Kololo.

He said principal Mooka was suspended on the basis of unproven allegations of having beaten up a learner, which were made against him in April last year and that the disciplinary hearing conducted by the Tshwane Education District against Mooka found him not guilty, yet he has still not been reinstated as the principal of the school.

“As parents we have never interfered with the disciplinary hearing of the Tshwane Education District against Mooka as we allowed the process to run its course,” he said.

Kololo emphasised that as parents they knew all along that the allegations against him (Mooka) were false and pointed out that as parents they worked well with Mooka who always informed him about issues affecting the school.

“The young man who is alleged to have been beaten up by principal Mooka was actually beaten up by members of the community after he was caught stealing a phone and a radio speaker in 2023 in the Lepheng Section of Hammanskraal,” he said.

He added that the photos of the beaten-up boy were wrongly used to implicate principal Mooka.

The alleged beaten-up boy no longer attends school at Madisong Secondary, according to Kololo.

According to allegations made against Principal Mooka is that he beat up the said boy with a hosepipe in the back and photos of the beaten-up learner were used as evidence against principal Mooka.

Another parent Duduzile Valentine said the suspension of principal Mooka was orchestrated by a racist Tshwane District Department of Education Director Cecia Coetzee.

“What surprised us is that the contract of the Acting School Principal has been extended by another three months while we are actually expecting to see the real principal of the school Bethuel Mooka back at the school,” said Valentine.

Yet another parent told Tshwane Talks that as SGB members they believe that Mooka has been framed by the District Director Coetzee.

“At the moment there are cases of sexual harassment involving teachers, assistant teachers and learners at the school and the acting principal can’t put a stop to this nonsense,” he said.

Another concerned parents urged newly-appointed MEC for Education in Gauteng Lebigang Maile to come to the school and rescue it from the chaos that it faces at the moment.

A concerned parent told Tshwane Talks that her appeal to learners is that they must take their education seriously and desist from unruly behaviour like bunking school and indulging in drugs and alcohol abuse.

In response, the Gauteng Department of Education released the following statement to Tshwane Talks:

“It is important to note that the said principal is not yet back at the school as the hearing outcome is currently under appeal and as such the precautionary transfer has been extended pending the outcome of the appeal process.”

The statement indicated that the principal was initially placed on precautionary transfer on 24 April 2025.

“We invite complainants to provide us with information that will enable us to investigate the matter,” read parts of the statement.

“As the department, we call upon all stakeholders to work with the department for the betterment of the situation at the school because disrupting schooling will not yield any positive results; lost contact time is not easily recovered,” read the statement in conclusion.