Replace the failing DA
The DA leader Helen Zille, also premier of the Western Cape provincial government, must still explain why her province slipped back for the second consecutive year under DA rule to the fourth place nationally - after taking the first place in matric results in 2011.
So far the DA has embarked on predictable tactics by crying foul, unduly politicising matters and detracting attention from the real problem: Why a so-called shining province like the Western Cape could digress so much. From taking second place in 2012, the Western Cape dropped two more positions with matric 2013 examinations.
This deflection does not help the Western Cape as people nationally want to know how the leading province fell back and lost so much ground!
Zille as a former education MEC should know better than to attempt to imply other provinces had a watered down exam.
ANC Western Cape leader Marius Fransman says: "The lame attempts and attacks smack of spoil sport politics to detract from her own predicament in the Western Cape by calling for the pass level to be raised to fifty percent and insulting all those learners, teachers and parents across the nation who worked for twelve years to obtain this vital certificate by now out of the blue questioning or discrediting their achievements!
"Why the DA now wants the bar to be raised when the Western Cape is outdone and could not even end amongst the top three provinces, is contemptuous. The majority of the DA's supporter base under the apartheid education system enjoyed a pass rate of 33,3% for a standard grade subject (25% for lower grade and 40% for higher grade) pass level and many went to university.
"Now, when some learners from poor areas with inferior schools or facilities in other provinces outperform those from more advantaged areas, their education and examination are disgraced and ridiculed by those with an inflated superiority ego.
"It smacks of prejudice and stereotyping if so-called black or ANC provinces' success is doubted. This superiority complex of some is the very basis of racism and is driven by deep-rooted hatred. It is also heartless of the uncaring DA to rubbish the earnest hard work of learners. It further also reflects on the Western Cape too when results of the national examination is slammed like that in bad taste. It is cruel to the extreme to rob these youngsters of their self-esteem, confidence and pride at a time like this.
"It must also be noted this comes from the party that allows black school children to be called ‘refugees' in their own country, that claims there were no blacks for 300 years in the Cape, poor schools to be arbitrarily closed, tells poor people infected by HIV to pay for their own ARV treatment, speaks of ‘professional blacks', insults black female MP's as seat warmers and just eating. These offensive references, together with a Verwoerdian belief that blacks cannot do maths and sciences, are old order class and race ideology proving that the DA and many of its leaders are still trapped in the past. At best it shows the DA is only protecting white past privileges including appointing mainly white managers and only white MEC's.
"It is all about the politics of deception the DA employs as it runs away from real issues, instead of taking full responsibility of the lapse and be seen to fix the problem or failure. Two years ago the DA also raised doubts and kites when President Jacob Zuma challenged the Western Cape to cooperate and address the highest provincial dropout of learners not in school up to matric."
The ANC is concerned that mostly poor, township and rural or farm children drop out because the fall behind in the foundation phase and do not get the support to catch up. This means that enough children dropout that could annually fill up the Cape Town Stadium! Of the about 80 000 that enters in grade one, only 40 000 writes the matriculation exams.
"If the DA was in the first place, none of the present inventions would have been heard. Zille would have blown her own horn. But, the disingenuous DA opposes for the sake of moving backwards and continues on a destructive course instead of building in a positive way. Sowing distrust in this case is merely a smokescreen to hide the failure and relapse under the DA. The DA has in its audits and other governance measures regressed. This can also be seen with the matric pass rate.
"The ANC will immediately prioritise education and put in place measures to reverse the situation and seek lasting solutions. The Western Cape education department will have to be shaken up. The province can no longer afford the DA's breaking down of good governance and must be replaced in the upcoming elections," Fransman added.
Statement issued by ANC Western Cape leader, Marius Fransman, January 10 2014
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