The Honourable Minister Mboweni

Congratulations and thank you for the integrity and honesty with which you lead the way as Minister. You are respected widely amongst citizens in South Afric. You, amongst many others are continuously in our prayers for the huge task at hand.

Please allow me to make the following humble proposal: When schools are gradually starting to operate as from next week, there are a particular group of Educators, (teachers) who is largely at risk.

These are Teachers between sixty one (61) and sixty four (64) year old.

As we know, children are A-symptomatic and therefor many of them could unknowingly (and showing no symptoms) carry the virus and spread it.

Proposal :

Previously, persons aged between 55 and 60 were allowed to apply for retirement without penalty. Could this be applied for 61-64 year old Teachers now?

Motivation for proposal :

• Limit the risk for infection amongst 60 + years old Teachers.
• Many teachers in this age group has underlying medical conditions which will not allow them to return to schools anyway, leaving a vacuum at schools.
• Open up several new job opportunities for younger Teachers.
• Schoolyear is already staggering, so the rest of the schoolyear could be used to get the new recruits trained and settled in, so that they could start afresh in 2021.
• You are the specialist, but may it also come down as a huge saving for the Treasury?

Please give this idea a serious thought, I am sure this could be a win-win solution.

Kind regards
Respectfully yours