On one single day this week the minister of basic education declared that schools would only reopen on June 8; the provincial MEC for education where I live insisted on the original, gazetted date of  June 1 for the reopening; and my niece received a letter from her school in the same province telling parents that “the SMT and SGB feel it is best that learners not attend tomorrow” — all of this on the Sunday before schools were scheduled to reopen after an extended lockdown.

The minister’s news conference on the Sunday that would have clarified matters was suddenly postponed to the next day, the Monday the schools were supposed to reopen. Parents panicked and I was inundated with calls. What is going on?..