DA’s education MEC Shäfer must go now 

25 April 2017

The ANC calls for the head of Western Cape education MEC Debbie Shäfer.

This follows another controversy after the vicious stabbing last week of the Bishop Lavis skills school principal Wayne Abrahams for proceeding with a disciplinary investigation after a pupil shot another on 27 March 2017. Abrahams received prior life threats since the shooting. He is recovering from multiple wounds and is still in a serious condition.

Shäfer has divulged information that one of the suspects was out on parole. She did not reveal her source and the police could not verify if indeed it is true.

ANC Western Cape education spokesperson Theo Olivier says: “Premier Helen Zille’s education MEC is uncontrolled and clearly does not know what is going on in her department. This happens too often. She is always uniformed about the real problems facing her department like schools falling apart, overcrowded classes, closing of schools, the large numbers of unplaced learners and learners not in class late into the academic year.

“This MEC also does not care about the future of children in the closed down Uitsig school in Elsies River, schools without learner material, poor maintenance of schools and as a cabinet member supported the sale of the former Tafelberg school site instead of utilising it to transform old apartheid spatial lines by providing affordable housing to workers of Sea Point.

“She and Zille do not give a hoot for the continued inequality and inferior education in poor areas like townships. Shäfer is elitist and not fit for purpose to serve in such an important public office. She should without delay make way for somebody that understands and cares for vulnerable children of poor people. If she does not resign, she must be fired or recalled by her party.”

Issued by Cobus Grobler on behalf of ANC, 25 April 2017