SADTU concerned that taxpayers' money is wasted again

In our press statement dated 31 July 2013 we urged Education MEC Donald Grant and Premier Helen Zille to respect the courts and not to waste the taxpayer's money with an appeal against the High Court decision not to close the 17 schools. The MEC and Premier should instead, reduce the class sizes in the province.

We are indeed shocked by the reckless manner in which the Western Cape government is spending the money of the province with these continuous court challenges. We publicly call on the two to declare how much money they have wasted on legal fees since the MEC began his futile attempt to close the schools.

We reject the Western Cape Government and the National Minister's reasoning for the appeal, because if there are policy gaps, it is upon the incumbents to give policy directives and not for the judiciary to do the latter.

The MEC states in his media statement that the court decision "is affecting our capacity to ensure that children are educated in the best available schools, and the devoted resources." However, if they devote their resources to litigation, they will never narrow the gap between those who have and those who have not. Does the best available school mean a class size of 40+, no libraries, no computer labs, no science labs, no sports grounds, no school halls, no support staff, planking schools, no ceilings, to mention a few? SADTU will not be fooled.

First, it was the interdict brought by the schools, then the appeal to the Constitutional Court, followed by the review - all ruled in favour of the schools - and now an appeal. This is extravagant to say the least; whilst schools are under-resourced and under-staffed.

We call on the public to reject this wasteful expenditure.

Statement issued by SADTU Western Cape Secretary, Jonavon Rustin, August 23 2013

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