Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi says the current school curriculum needs to be overhauled to include the rich history of South Africa’s liberation struggle.
Lesufi spoke on Wednesday at the home of late photojournalist and struggle icon, Peter Magubane.
Magubane died on New Year’s Day at the age of 91.
In 2018, a ministerial task team appointed by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga recommended that history should be rolled out gradually into a compulsory subject.
This came after parties in the National Assembly raised concerns over the new generation’s lack of knowledge and appreciation of anti-apartheid activists.
While the subject is only compulsory until grade 9, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi said that the current syllabus lacked substance.
He said that the new generation needed to be taught about the likes of Peter Magubane and the activism he did with just a camera.
“We have to work very hard to rewrite and reposition the correct history, and that is why our call to make history compulsory still stands. If that history does not have the name of Dr Magubane, it’s not history. If that history does not have the name of Chris Hani, it’s not history.”
Lesufi has been making this call since his days of being the Education MEC in the province.
-EWN