DA want answers over KZN’s 800 vacant senior posts at schools

7 December 2016

The Democratic Alliance will today submit a written parliamentary question to KZN’s Education MEC, Mthandeni Dlungwana to establish the reasons for as many as 800 vacant senior posts at schools in the province.

According to a media report yesterday, the positions include heads of department, deputy principals and principals that are yet to be announced despite a mass recruitment drive earlier this year.

The situation has left both educators and schools in a state of uncertainty and is threatening to disrupt the start of the 2017 academic year.

The DA is extremely disappointed by this revelation. Our province’s schools cannot afford to have critical posts unfilled. Nor can any of them afford to start the 2017 academic year unprepared.

Far too many of our learners are already facing huge challenges ranging from transportation, poor quality teaching, gang-related incidents and a lack of infrastructure. That they should now face a situation where schools are not organised and up and running, with teaching taking place from day one, is not acceptable.

It is also damning that such news should be conveyed to members of the provincial education portfolio committee via the media rather than by the DoE itself.

The DA expects the MEC to act. We want answers which must include the full extent of the vacancy issue, why this situation has been allowed to happen and what the DoE plans to do in the short term to ensure that learners are not compromised.

Issued by Mbali Ntuli, DA KZN Spokesperson on Education, 7 December 2016