ET Thabane Primary in the Eastern Cape, with close to 2 000 pupils, needs more mobile classrooms in order to comply with physical distancing measures. Photo: Groundup/ Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik.
The national education department as well as the Eastern Cape education department have not shown the consistent political will to ensure that schools in the province are fixed with the urgency needed, writes
Elizabeth Biney, Hopolang Selebalo and
Jane Borman.
At Tantseka Primary School in Mthatha, over 200 pupils have been relieving themselves in the open air.
At Masizame Junior Primary, a mud school in Centane near Butterworth, 175 pupils have been using one broken toilet. And 147 schools in the Eastern Cape recently had their water supply cut off because the Eastern Cape Department of Education owes the Amathole District Municipality R8 million.
Northern Cape government chops its wage bill by R4.7bn
By Sandi Kwon Hoo
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An amount of R211.8 million has been allocated for Covid-19 support in the Northern Cape, while the compensation of government employees has been reduced by R4.7 billion.
During his address on the tabling of the 2021 Northern Cape main appropriation bill and the 2021 third adjustment appropriation bill, the MEC for the Department of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Abraham Vosloo, stated that spending reviews would take place across all districts to eliminate wasteful expenditure.
“If we are spending on a programme that does not add value and contribute to the social agenda of this Province, we will not hesitate to stop them and immediately direct those resources to our identified priorities.”
Finance MEC tables âbleakâ budget
By Thami Magubane
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Durban - INVESTMENTS in infrastructure have been prioritised as the government seeks to trigger economic revival and create much-needed job opportunities in KwaZulu-Natal.
MEC for Finance Nomusa Dube-Ncube tabled her budget for the 2021/22 financial year during a virtual sitting of the legislature on Tuesday.
The budget laid bare the bleak economic realities facing the country, and revealed yet another round of budget cuts across all departments, leaving the provincial government feeling that they have cut all the way to the bone.
Dube-Ncube said despite the need for budget cuts, they had tried to avoid reducing the budget for infrastructure, adding that President Cyril Ramaphosa had identified infrastructure âas one of the pillars the countryâs economic revival will be based on.â
The 2021 budget provides a small amount of relief for
education, but overall the cuts are going to hurt schools. Photo: Getty Images.
When Finance Minister Tito Mboweni tabled the 2021 budget, there was slightly better news for education than in last year s Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), but the overall story is still that the government is refusing to invest enough into quality teaching and learning for all.
With last year s Supplementary Budget and MTBPS, Mboweni chopped away at basic education funding and infrastructure grants. Since October, Equal Education s (EE) learner, post-school youth and parent members have protested again taking to the streets outside Parliament to demand that government prioritise education, that the budget cuts be reversed, and that education be declared a frontline department in the fight against Covid-19.
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