  In an effort to counter the spread of COVID-19 many schools were forced to
shut down. Primary schools in South Africa were forced to shift to emergency
remote teaching abruptly relying on using a Learning Management System (LMS) to
aid their teaching. LMSs helped primary schools build resilience to cope with
unexpected events. An opportunity rose to study the affordances and constraints
faced when using a LMS for remote teaching, specifically for primary school
learners ('Gen Z') - a largely ignored area of research. Through a case study
of 6 schools, this research describes the affordances and constraints of the
LMS supported teaching system in use in primary schools. Affordances related to
schools, learners and teachers while constraints were classified from a
financial, technological, school, learner and teacher perspective. Noteworthy
affordances included using LMSs as notice boards and satisfying parents, the
key stakeholders. In terms of constraints, the digital divide was a recurring
theme while device and data costs were consistently a limitation. There were
many cases of schools not realizing the full potential of LMS usage. This
research should be useful for primary schools wanting to use a LMS for their
teaching.
