There are more than 1,000 schools in the Eastern Cape that are so dilapidated and dangerous they are not fit for the purpose for which they are intended.
It puts at risk hundreds of thousands of children who daily have to sit in these horrible structures to try to gain the basic education the constitution promises them.
To put it in perspective, it means that a fifth of the province’s 5,000 schools remain unfit for purpose
This was “revealed” by education minister Siviwe Gwarube while briefing the National Council of Provinces.
But this “revelation” has been extensively canvassed and written about over decades.
The provincial education department has been repeatedly and successfully sued over pit latrines, mud schools and dangerous school infrastructure.
Organisations such as Section 27, Equal Education and the Legal Resources Centre constantly highlight the department’s failures in this regard.
The national department of education is no better.
It took sustained activism and several court cases to get former education minister Angie Motshekga —the longest serving education minister in SA history — to the point where she eventually agreed to meet her constitutional obligation to prescribe the regulations for norms and standards for school infrastructure. She finally did so in 2013.
These regulations gave the departments 10 years to provide every school with water, electricity, classrooms, toilets and fencing.
The victims of this inefficiency and incapacity are children who need a decent basic education to have any chance at breaking out of the poverty cycle.
All other norms were supposed to be met by 2030. Provincial MECs were supposed to submit a plan to the minister on how they would ensure implementation and report annually on progress.
But the Eastern Cape hasn’t met any deadlines and things just seem to get worse.
The provincial and national education department used some terminology in the norms and standards as an “escape clause” to avoid meeting their deadlines.
Where it was specified that they prioritise dilapidated and mud schools for fixing, the department read this to mean that they should simply go on a priority list.
Equal Education slammed closed this door by obtaining a groundbreaking judgment in the Bhisho high court in 2018 which said the word “prioritise” clearly meant that the government must actually fix schools and not just plan to do so.
It is little wonder that premier Oscar Mabuyane’s recent personal promise to eradicate poverty in the Eastern Cape by 2030 sparked such scepticism.
The reality is that his government lacks the political will to embrace and act on its constitutional obligations.
In the case of schools, the victims of this inefficiency and incapacity are children who need a decent basic education to have any chance of breaking out of the poverty cycle.
The government needs to work harder to deliver to our children the rights to safety, equality, dignity and education.
Daily Dispatch
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