SO, the ANC Women's League has come out all pip pip, tally-ho for its president, praising Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga for "her dedication and determination to see the children of South Africa receive a decent education".
Hardly startling news, you may say. In fact, you could use the Hubble space telescope and still would not find a single trace of surprise among the Mahogany Ridge regulars at the statement the league issued after the teachers' strike on Wednesday.
The league were obviously not happy with the SA Democratic Teachers Union and gamely suggested they could have used other methods to resolve their grievances. "As mothers," they huffed, "we will not stand for our children's education being used as a tool to launch a smear campaign against individuals."
Fine words. But not a single mention of Putuma Junior Secondary, a rural school about 40 kilometres from Mthatha. It was here, also on Wednesday, that a group of academics, writers and civil society members began their 2013 Eastern Cape Schools Solidarity Visit, an initiative founded by the non-profit organisation, Equal Education.
According to press reports, the group were greatly troubled by what they found at Putuma. Some pupils walk up to 15 kilometres to get to school, and then cram themselves in classes of more than 100 learners.
One of the visitors, the novelist Zakes Mda, told The Times he was dumbstruck that the appalling conditions at Putuma were similar to those at the school he attended more than 50 years ago. "There is no capacity," he said. "There is corruption at top level. [That is why] places like these are neglected. That makes me very, very angry."