A local resident who is a Principal at a school outside the area, is in hot water after being accused by parents, teaching staff and SGB members on various serious allegations, to the point that now the special investigation unit of the police has intervened.
Whilst the accusations against the Principal have surfaced for some time now, this past Monday, (Nov 25) the police special unit, the HAWKS, raided the school, Laerskool Generaal Beyers in Danville, where Rabia Nurrudin of Laudium is the current Principal. It is alleged that Rabia, together with an accomplice involved with the school, misappropriated school funds involving huge amounts and over a period of time. At around noon on Monday a number of parents and two teachers from the school called the Laudium Sun concerning the raid by the HAWKS at the school. When the Laudium Sun team arrived at the school, the front gates of the school were locked, but at least two cars of the HAWKS could be seen inside the school yard. There were also many angry parents standing outside the school gates, who were pleased to see that the HAWKS were involved and said that they hoped that Rabia would confess to the police concerning where the alleged missing monies went to. A teacher from the school who recently first leaked the story about the alleged misappropriations of funds to the Laudium Sun, said that the Principal was questioned in length by the HAWKS concerning the various accusations against her and that the HAWKS had seized a number of items from the school in line of their follow up investigations. Parents standing outside the school gate also claimed that Rabia as Principal of the school did not want to account for the large amount of unauthorised spending, or alternatively the missing funds to the Chairperson and Treasurer of the SGB (School Governing Body). The Laudium Sun also learnt from a teacher at the school, about allegations that teachers were not happy with the dictatorial way Rabia was running the school and her bullying of teachers. It was also alleged that teachers and learners who did not ‘tow the line’ with the Principal’s unethical actions were victimised by her. The Laudium Sun was also told of a certain Mr Banard, who was hired as a maintenance person at the school without first being approved by the SGB. Other allegations against the Principal, include; *The Principal not following the school’s WhatsApp and CCTV policy and reserving the right to always have the last say on it. There is apparently a complete disregard of the Deputy Principal and only the Principal along with her PA, and certain of her favourite staff members can have a say in it. *The Principal is also accused of giving ‘fake donations’, to learners in the school, giving the learners items, then taking photos of the learners with the items, but then taking the items back once the photos are posted. *Some of the teachers also complained that the Principal is apparently ‘power hungry’ and hangs photos of herself with learners in various classes of the school and no other teacher’s photos with learners are allowed.
The teacher who complained about the Principal concluded by saying, “It is clear that the SGB and many of us teachers together with many parents want Principal Nurrudin removed from the school, but it seems that the Dept of Education is hesitant in removing her or to hold a disciplinary hearing against her, thus we just hope that the HAWKS find incriminating evidence against her, as we believe that she got rid of this evidence, when the calls for her removal started going louder a few weeks back.” When the Laudium Sun first learnt about the accusations against Principal Rabia recently, we asked for her comment. She undertook to send a comment but same was not forthcoming. Now at the time of the HAWKS raid we again asked Rabia to comment. This time all she said was, “It is all false accusations that has been made against me and there is no evidence or proof on any of the incriminating accusations.”