MEC needs to be replaced – EFF

The lack of learner teacher support material (LTSM) at schools in the province is once again highlighted in media countrywide.
“It is time to give another person a chance to fill that post, Kgetjepe must make room for somebody else. He is a man of no action, “dololo”, full of empty promises, with no action forthcoming,” Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) Member of the Legislature, Jossey Buthane said.
Buthane said the EFF established that problems with the delivery of LTSM exist at most, if not all schools visited by representatives of the party during their oversight visits to schools.
“Learners are there, educators are there, but they arrived in a negative environment where they have been failed once again by the department which cannot plan properly. The delay of education lead to a doomed nation and the EFF will not allow it.
The Democratic Alliance (DA while undertaking oversight visits at schools in the province also commented on the lack of LTSM at schools on Wednesday, especially in the Waterberg, Sekhukhune and Mopani districts after the Department of Education on Monday issued a press release stating that learning and teaching in schools will start on the first day and that deliveries of stationery was expected to be completed by the end of this week.
This statement was backtracked upon one day later, with the department’s Head of Communications, Naledzani Rasila apologising profusely for possible inconveniences, saying the deliveries were delayed due to the appointment of a new contractor for deliveries as the contract for the previous contractor had expired.
DA Provincial Leader Jacques Smalle stated that their visist confirmed that all schools in Waterberg, Sekhukhune and Mopani districts had not received their cache and in the Capricorn and Vhembe districts only around 50% of the schools received their textbooks and LTSM.
A press statement issued by the department on Tuesday said more than 1 000 schools, mainly in Vhembe and Capricorn “has been covered” and that much more work has to be done in the other three disricts in the province. Rasila said the department is working around the clock to ensure delivery will be finalised by the end of the month.
“According to our sources in the department a contractor to provide LTSM was appointed very late and the fault cannot be laid at the service provider’s door,” Smalle said. “The DA is irked that MEC Ishmael Kgetjepe has yet again distorted the truth and covered up the incompetency of his department around the delivery of textbooks to schools in Limpopo for the new academic year. Kgetjepe was gloating about the successfully executed textbook delivery  for the 2017 school year during the release of 2016 National Senior Certificate results for Limpopo last week in Polokwane.”
He said the DA was concerned at the department’s perpetual failure to ensure timeous delivery of textbooks and LTSM, which confirms their longstanding view that the Education Department lacks credibility, capacity and the political will to prioritise learning.
“The failure of the department to ensure timeous delivery of textbook also speaks volumes to the decline of the matric pass rate of 10,4% over the last two years, “ he said.
He added that the DA is further concerned around the department’s budget allocation and will verify though a set of questions to the Legislature whether adequate resources were allocated to textbooks, LTSM and the delivery of same.
Provincial Government Spokesperson Phuti Seloba said currently the first priority is to see that all learners receive what they need soonest and that everyone channel their energy into that.
“We are very disappointed with this development,” he said. “Our second phase will be to see who slipped up to do what must be done, if there is anybody, and what to do about it.”

Story & photo: NELIE ERASMUS
>>nelie.observer@gmail.com

Featured photo: Education MEC Ishmael Kgetjepe.