Cape Argus: Matric scripts burnt in riot

http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5727150

Matric scripts burnt in riot
Service delivery protesters torch car carrying Grade 12 exam answers

November 12, 2010 Edition 2

ILSE FREDERICKS and LAVERN DE VRIES Staff Reporters

A NUMBER of matric exam answer scripts were destroyed when a service delivery protest in Khayelitsha turned violent, with residents stoning and torching three vehicles.

Although the Western Cape Education Department has said there is no evidence that it was the target of protesters’ ire, one of the cars torched belonged to them.

Inside the car was a sample of answer scripts that had been completed and collected for “pre-marking” by the chief marker before a national memorandum meeting, which were destroyed.

The department’s Brian Schreuder said: “The fire destroyed a number of the scripts. The vehicle was not carrying question papers.”

Schreuder said the department would inform the affected schools once its investigation was complete.

A formula to work out a mark for affected candidates, based on results in previous exams, had been provided by Umalusi, the body responsible for certifying exams, for situations such as this one.

Supplementary exams in February was another option, Schreuder said.

The department did not reveal how many scripts had been destroyed in the fire, nor which subjects were affected.

The Department of Social Development was also investigating last night whether another car belonged to them.

A truck was also set alight during the protests.

Police spokesman Warrant Officer Sipokazi Mawisa said residents of the TR section had concealed themselves between shacks before stoning vehicles travelling on Mew Way.

“The drivers ran from their vehicles and then the residents set the (vehicles) alight,” she said.

Mawisa said the protests were part of a series held recently to voice residents’ dissatisfaction over a lack of service delivery, including water, sanitation, housing and refuse removal.

However, lobby group Abahlali baseMjondolo, which has spearheaded several such protests, issued a statement yesterday distancing themselves from the incident.

Chairman Mzonke Poni said he had been alerted to the incident by media. He later issued a statement accusing the ANC Youth League of arranging the protest and “hijacking the community’s cause for political motivation”.

While the ANCYL’s Andile Lili rejected the accusation and also distanced the league from the arson attack, he did confirm that a campaign to make the city ungovernable would be launched soon.

“We have been contacted by blacks, whites, coloureds and people from all over to complain about a lack of service delivery, but despite our pleas to provincial government, nothing has been done.

“We aim to consolidate our protests into a 14-day series of protests to make the city ungovernable to show the city that they can’t be arrogant while the voters get no response from them,” Lili said.

No one was injured or arrested yesterday, but police registered a case of public violence.