Memorandum to premier Helen Zille (in absentia) handed over by ANC Western Cape leader Marius Fransman and secretary Songezo Mjongile to her agent, Western Cape provincial legislature secretary Royston Hindley, July 16 2012:

MEMORANDUM BY THE WESTERN CAPE ANC

16 July 2012

Whereas the Western Cape is facing huge challenges with schools that affect large numbers of learners across a large area, the ANC notes:

Education MEC Donald Grant has announced his intention to close down another large number of schools in a province that has a dire need for more schools, namely sixty schools - as is quoted by the MEC;

That Grant has closed more than a dozen of schools during the past year;

That he is heading towards closing 27 schools by the end of this year;

That he has only seen the building and opening of 23 schools during his tenure since 2009;

The province is losing ground on the matter and still works at a pace constituting a growing deficit;

That Grant has been found in the Cape High Court not to follow due process and failed to properly consult with communities on these closures;

That Grant refuses to cancel his notices and engage in reasonable requests to come to communities and engage with them on the looming closures with affected parents and organisations like the faith communities;

That these closures are breaking up communities which also use facilities for communal and religious gatherings;

That the majority of the schools presently facing closure are poor schools (20 no fee or quintile one) in poor areas;

That the majority of these schools are rural and farm schools serving communities that do not have access to transport or means to make alternative choices;

That the majority of these schools serve disadvantaged Afrikaans speaking and coloured communities;

That it is these schools in rural and farm areas of the Western Cape that have the largest Grade Ten dropout rate in the country and need a special intervention as envisaged by president Jacob Zuma in his State of the Nation Address at the beginning of this year;

That the Western Cape has failed to make public any plans to catch and prevent dropouts;

That the Western Cape has a growing learner transport system whereby children are transported by contractors to other schools further and further away from their residences;

That this system is under severe suspicion;

That the system is riddled by reports of unsafe practices endangering the lives of children;

That the vehicles are not in the shape to transport the future leaders of the province;

That the control of the vehicles and drivers are not known and therefore in doubt;

That an audit of the system was done but the outcome is enshrouded in secrecy as the department refuses to release it unconditionally for scrutiny, but instead classified it as confidential;

That it is the closure of one such school and the transporting of learners to another ended in the calamitous Rheenendal tragedy a few months ago where a bus landed in a ravine and fourteen people were buried;

That there a more reports of handbook shortages in the province where essential learning material is not delivered on time and even at the halfway mark of the year some schools were without the prescribed books;

That there are still reports of teacher shortages in the province;

That there are reports of infrastructure and facility shortages in the province;

That there are regular reports of desk and chair shortages in the province;

That many schools still have a shortage of libraries and laboratories;

That many schools are still overcrowded and that there are still shortages of classrooms;

That the majority of these shortages occur in poor and disadvantaged areas like townships, informal and outlying areas;

That this DA-run government is perceived to not care for poor people and is satisfied with inferior service delivery to people in these conditions.

The ANC therefore demands of this provincial government to:

Play open cards with the public, i.e. learners, parents, teachers, school governing boards, community organisations, unions like Sadtu and other stake holders like political parties in the legislature;

Catch up plans be announced for all affected learners disadvantaged by shortages of books and other material by the end of business today or face applications to the High Court to force it to do this;

Release the report on the learner transport audit;

That a plan is released for the support to rural and farm learners to stay longer in school for a better and full education;

That MEC Grant is replaced as he has lied about shortages and other problems. As he has misled the public, he cannot be trusted anymore. He has breached the public trust and must go without delay.

Issued by the ANC Western Cape, July 16 2012

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