The politically charged storm surrounding three Maritzburg College pupils who posted a pro-EFF tweet is “irrational and unconstitutional”. The KwaZulu-Natal department of education said on Monday that charges against the pupils had been put on hold‚ pending a provincial education department probe into allegations of racism at the school. The boys are facing charges that include breaching sections of the South African Schools Act. However‚ education experts disagree. Non-governmental organisation Equal Education said that, according to the charges‚ the photographs of the learners were in contravention of Section 33a of the Schools Act‚ which prohibited party-political activities during school hours. Equal Education spokeswoman Leanne Jansen said the charges also irrationally suggested that photographs of black learners speaking out about the dispossession of land — as a result of apartheid — were racially charged. “These charges unconstitutionally limit the rights of learners‚ enshri...

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