NUMSA STATEMENT ON THE TEXTBOOKS CRISIS IN LIMPOPO
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa in Hlanganani Region (which encompasses Limpopo, Tshwane and North-West) agrees with the African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) Member and Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Comrade Jeff Thamsanqa Radebe's admission that government's failure to deliver textbooks to Limpopo schools was a national "shame".
We firmly believe that the textbook crisis has not only plunged the future of Limpopo learners schooling into a crisis, but has rendered the future of the learners into tatters. We fail to understand the logic in, why it had to take a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) to expose the non-delivery of textbooks in Limpopo after six months. This is something that the Department of Basic Education should have known earlier in the year.
What has befallen these young learners and offspring's of the working class, the jewels of our National Democratic Revolution (NDR) and struggle for people's education for people's power is a slap in face of President Nelson Mandela's vision for a Black African child's education. President Mandela once said "education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that a son of a mineworker can become the head of a mine, that a child of farm workers can become the President of a great nation".
We call on the Ministry of Basic Education and the Department of Education in Limpopo to publicly account for this shameless deed and whoever is responsible should be given the boot or shown the door. The failure by the Ministry of Education and Limpopo Department of Education to concede to this demand, will reinforce our suspicions that those entrusted with the responsibility of managing our education system have total disregard or interest in the education and future of a Black African working class child.
We further urge the Ministry of Basic Education to discontinue from using private and market embedded contractors to produce textbooks in public schools. We believe that the State has enough capacity through the State-owned Print Works to produce or reproduce the required textbooks in our public schools.
Lastly, we urge the Department of Basic Education to forge a strategic partnership with the teacher unions, particularly SA Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) and the National Youth Development Agency ( NYDA) to devise a coherent and clear 'Catch-Up, or Recovery Plan' for the affected schools in Limpopo. This will go a long way in assisting the affected learners to catch-up with their studies geared towards achieving quality results and academic excellence.
Statement issued by Cde Jerry Morulane, NUMSA Regional Secretary, June 28 2012
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