On Thursday, 28 April 2016, Mr Anwar Lutta (President of SIA) announced to the parents and teachers of Qibla College that the College would be closing forever with the last day being 31 May 2016. This announcement was made without any consultation with parents, members and the community in general. The reason given was that it was not financially viable but when asked about the actual financial position no numbers could be provided. One of the parents present volunteered to raise finances should this be the requirement to keep the school going. There was no response from the Executive on this offer. Parents and staff are understandably very angry at the role of the Executive Committee in the closure of Qibla College. As noted by one of the parents on Thursday night “we should be opening more Islamic schools and should not be closing them”. It is not only the matter of 40+ students but the future of Islamic Schools in the region. Over the last few years Qibla College has existed without the need for any Mosque funds. A “lack of funds” is now suddenly being put forward as the main reason for closure, without any self-reflection by the current Executive Committee on the following: ·that they never had the vested interest of Qibla College at heart, ·that they did not have the skillset / competence to govern the school, ·that they could not offer the professionalism demanded of this responsibility, · that they did not have the commercial and strategic abilities required, · that they were forced to regularly run to the Association of Independent School for help on the basic requirements of running a school, ·that they preferred to expose the SIA to contractual and legal risk by not honouring employment awards and not complying with basic legal obligations (even after being told). The current Executive Committee (Najaat Parker, Ghouwa Jappie, Abdurahman Jappie, Tamrez Khan, Anwar Lutta, Abdul-Kariem Salie) should be held accountable for this destructive action. Please Sign the Petition & Help Us.