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ActionSA’s intervention to help sixteen learners from Leeu Gamka in Prince Albert, who had been refused admission to hostel in Beaufort West, has been successful.

There is no high school in the rural town of Leeu Gamka and learners are left with no choice but to go to hostel in either Prince Albert or Beaufort West.  On Monday 16th January 2023, parents of sixteen learners who had applied for re-admission to the Bastiaanse Secondary School hostel in Beaufort West, were informed that their applications for hostel had been rejected.  

Early on Tuesday morning, ActionSA met with officials from the Western Cape Department of Education in Cape Town to explain how the rejection of these learners’ hostel applications meant that they were effectively prevented from attending school at all.  ActionSA requested that the Department of Education urgently assist with the approval of the learners’ hostel applications. 

ActionSA members in Beaufort West also urged the Department of Education’s District Circuit management to ensure that the Leeu Gamka learners were accepted at the hostel. 

As a result of ActionSA’s intervention, Bastiaanse Sekondêre Skool withdrew its rejection and confirmed on Wednesday that all sixteen learners have now been accepted at the hostel.

This is a victory for the community of Leeu Gamka.  The right to a basic education is a right which is enshrined in our Constitution and all South Africans should be able to access a quality education no matter who they are, where they live, or what they earn.

ActionSA continues to call on Western Cape MEC David Maynier to urgently, as a short-term solution, approve free, regular transport for learners from Leeu Gamka to the hostels they attend and, most importantly, for high school facilities to be provided for learners in Leeu Gamka.

ActionSA will continue fight for the poor, marginalized and forgotten people of the Western Cape.

Issued by ActionSA