REFUSAL OF WESTERN CAPE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TO RELEASE AUDIT REPORT TO SCOPA
When a learner in the Western Cape gets on a bus contracted by the Education Department to take them to school, are they safe, will they arrive at school that day?
On 24 August there was a horrific bus accident near Rheenendal, Knysna, in which 14 children and the driver lost their lives. The provincial government immediately blamed a roadworthy testing station and illegally closed it down.
Never in the outpouring of grief on this issue, has the provincial government made public that it was sitting on a report that says that the provincial education department was not fulfilling the terms of its contracts with the providers of learner transport, including the provider in Rheenedal. Clearly this is a matter of intense public interest.
In the same week where DA leader Helen Zille has made strident speeches about the Protection of State Information Bill and the public interest, her government defies the provincial parliament and a Scopa resolution by refusing to make the audit report to available to Scopa.
Even worse the chairperson, hon Pauline Cupido together with the DA members of Scopa, refused to stand by their own resolution and succumbed to political pressure from their DA bosses by allowing the the department to make a presentation on the report, without even giving a copy of the presentation, let alone the full report, to Scopa.