EFF statement on upcoming Grade 12 examinations

28 October 2022

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) would like to wish all Grade 12 leamers well as they are set to start writing their final examinations on Monday, 31 October 2022. This period marks a crucial transition on the lives of these young people, as these exams will determine and impact on their future for a very long time. It is therefore crucial that families, teachers and communities at large provide the much-needed support to ensure that these young leaders of the future write without unnecessary distractions.

However, it is impossible not to note that this group of matriculants is writing under extraordinarily difficult times, and many of these difficulties are as a result of government ineptitude. Thousands of learners in KwaZuIu Natal who were affected by the destructive floods earlier this year have not been schooling in a conducive environment. Many are still housed in community halls, and access to school and proper study environment at home is almost impossible. That the government has not been able to restore some sense of normality in KwaZuIu Natal is an indictment on this government, and all the proof needed to demonstrate just how unworthy of leading the country this bunch of pretenders is. The same concern applies to the many learners affected by the Jaggersfontein disaster, as these learners too, will be writing under severe difficulties through a fault not of their own doing. No special provisions have been made for these learners as well, and the Minister of Basic Education will be waxing lyrical in January, about the success of well-off children who have not had to deal with half the difficulties many black learners face on a daily basis across the country.

Despite these and many other difficulties, including the inability of the Basic Education department to ensure that exams are not disrupted by load shedding, we have full confidence that the 2022 class will do extremely well. The EFF has no illusions about the centrality of education for the attainment of economic freedom in our lifetime, and we make no apologies about the need to make education fashionable amongst black people. It is for this reason that we are particularly rooting for the forgotten black children writing their exams under conditions of oppression and exploitation in the farms of the Western Cape, the young girl children who

cross dangerous rivers to access school, those who have grown up in orphanages and in child headed households. The fact that they have been failed by the govemment ought to be a motivation to even do better, because their future and the future of this country depends on it.

May they always remember the words of that towering agent for education, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, who taught us that "education to us means service to Africa."

We wish the class of 2022 well, and we are looking forward to welcoming them to the EFF Student Command at institutions of higher learning in 2023.

Issued by Sinawo Thambo, National Spokesperson, EFF, 28 October 2022