SHENGE, LETS TALK FRANKLY ABOUT YOUR LEGACY IN EDUCATION
Dear Comrade Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Oops I made a mistake! I forgot you are no longer my comrade as you left the African National Congress a long time ago and formed your own party, the Inkatha Freedom Party. But who can blame me for making such a mistake? Shenge you try so hard to associate yourself with our movement and its leaders such as Comrade Nelson Mandela and Comrade Oliver Tambo.
Shenge you are not the only one. The ANC's celebrated history makes many other politicians wish they were part of it. Ms Helen Zille's Democratic Alliance tries desperately to link itself to ANC leaders. Your factory fault Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi, who left your party and formed the National Freedom Party after she failed spectacularly to challenge your autocratic leadership, also does the same.
KaMagwaza-Msibi's election campaign billboards have bank notes with Mandela's face. This has been done to make the electorate think that the NFP has links with Mandela. Sometimes we underestimate how lucky we are to be members of the ANC, a political party that has produced world class leaders that other parties only dream of.
Shenge let me stop bragging about my organisation before I annoy you. I know how quickly you become angry if people try to disassociate you from the ANC liberation struggle. I will not afford annoying you as I want us to engage frankly on the issue of how many schools your Bantustan government built versus those built by the ANC's democratically elected government.
Shenge, I have noted that since you began your election campaign trail last year, there is hardly a single public platform you get and fail to brag that your KwaZulu government built more schools than the ANC. That is not correct. It is worrying that even your IFP youth brigadier, Mkhulekwa Hlengwa and IFP Deputy President Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi now also sound like scratched records, bragging about something which is devoid from the truth.
You may claim to have built 6000 schools but Shenge as a reasonable man you know deep inside that the majority of them would not fit to be classified as schools in the current dispensation.
Beside the fact that most of them were mud schools built by communities, those which can qualify to be referred to as proper schools today only had one or two classrooms. That is why some of us studied under trees for the better part of our lower grades. When we finally reached higher grades, we were forced to learn in combined classes, meaning that you would learn one and the same thing in the same classroom for three years. I remember vividly how angry I was when I was in Grade 5 and scored higher marks than fellow classmates who were doing grade 7. But I was forced to learn the same thing for another two years. That was frustrating Shenge.
Shenge I know you remember well that in some instances, communities would build their own schools and also pay for teachers. The only thing you did for such schools was to flood them with your propaganda book, Ubuntu Botho, a calculated move to indoctrinate young people with IFP policies thus drifting them away from the ANC led liberation struggle.
Shenge I respect you. I remember when you hosted me at your Nkonjeni homestead eight years ago when I was still part of the fourth estate. You gave me a mouth-watering lunch and played me different traditional songs composed by your mother, Princes Magogo. I felt honoured when you referred to me as Mr Tembe or Sir. But I will not forgive you for your education legacy. I beg you to admit that you did not do well; the truth will clear your conscience.
It has taken the ANC government too long to eradicate your mud schools, replace your poorly built classrooms, to add more classrooms, build laboratories and libraries-something that rarely existed during your era. We have built 7 918 classrooms in a short space of time
Shenge you and I know that the combined classrooms for the 6000 schools you built can be equivalent to about 30 schools that we currently build as the ANC government. That is simply because our schools are state of the art schools that during your time would only be found in urban areas. Our schools have libraries, laboratories, kitchens, staff rooms, computer rooms, electricity and portable water.
To be exact Shenge we have done the following: built 56 world class new schools, 6 473 standard classrooms, 886 Grade R classrooms, 294 laboratories, 559 multi-purpose classrooms, 230 computer rooms, 208 media centres, 406 mobile classrooms, 372 administration blocks, 480 kitchens/ nutrition blocks, 17 715 toilets, fenced and rehabilitated 1 980 of your poorly built schools.
Shenge I understand why you have chosen to spin. It is not nice to see your successor excelling. It makes you look useless and hoping you could be given another chance to rectify your wrongs. I can imagine how painful it is for you Shenge to see some of the state of the art schools being built in your own backyard and in areas you regarded as your heartland for decades. You wish they had been built by you, don't you?
I have no doubt that you have noticed that the more the ANC government accelerates service delivery in all parts of the province, the more your IFP loses support.
Shenge I have tried to be frank about the experience I had with your Bantustan education and what the ANC government is doing. I therefore request you my former comrade to do the same. Tell the truth and shame the devil. Simply because the story that you excelled in education has reached many people, I suggest you correct it publicly. I suggest you also tell your, Mr Hlengwa and Buthelezi to do the same. Various scholars have in the past years argued that "if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it". I have no doubt that as a level-headed man Shenge you would not like to continue telling the public something which is not correct after we have engaged so honestly.
Thank you for your attention Shenge
Bongani Tembe is the ANC media liaison officer in KwaZulu-Natal
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