WHY ANGIE MOTSHEKGA SHOULD STAY? INTRODUCTION The issue of the textbook fiasco in Limpopo has brought us other memories of the open toilet saga; it is unfortunate on this one that a serious matter which affects a poor black child has been sensationalised for populism and cheap political agendas. Yes a poor black child, a working class child has been failed by the supper structure in society which has been entrusted with the responsibility of education in this country. The matter has brought early electioneering for political parties, populism for populist, a stage to perform for the detractors of the ruling class within the party and a point to prove for populist academics rather than to bring a lasting solution to the educational problems in the country. I think most of the academics that are given a public platform are given because of their particular view to the ruling party and its ruling elites especially their feelings about the president than their scientific and intellectual ability to analyse and solve problems. Let me remind South Africans about two issues which I had a different views, firstly is the manner in which Jackie Selebi was prosecuted and secondly the way General Bheki Cele was shown the door; the two issues were sensationalised by populist journalist and populist in power than to be objective. The first saga of Jackie Selebi the NPA entered into a bargaining plea with drug lords and mafias in return to testify against Selebi, the ever biggest drug bust in the country just disappear and Selebi was sentenced based on circumstantial evidence on his relationship with Aggloitti and what did we get as a country in return more drug circulation than before, more young people were condemned to be drug addicts and maybe people like Nobanda and many more young South Africans are victims of populism which substituted morality and objectivity in the eyes of justice in the Selebi case. General Bheki Cele brought moral to the police service, has brought crime down; dealt adequately with the ATM bombing and other violent crime. We can debate about the approach but there were short term results but due to sensationalism of the issue and the corporation of the state he was found to be unfit to hold office but not guilty of corruption, as a nation we allowed it to happen without questioning the logic; the ruling party abandoned its deployment policy and followed the public opinion. My view is that if Cele was not found guilty of corruption we were supposed to strengthen his weakness especially on the issue of financial management, but we have looked for quick solution which I think was destructive than building a person for the benefit of the nation. Let us not commit the same mistake on the issue of education, quick fixes; populism and factional feelings will not help us as a country. THE HISTORICAL CRISIS IN EDUCATION The issue of shortage of textbooks is as old as Apartheid; in 1993 COSAS lead a sit in the offices of the former Kangwane government for failure to deliver textbooks and other education material and since 1994 we did not improve the system, we carried on or worsened the situation especially the availability of study material. The ANCYL and COSAS has joined the chorus for the minister to resign without doing an introspection, the textbook saga happened within the jurisdiction of COSAS but because it is a dead organisation failed to defend and fight for its constituency. The question I’m asking myself is what would have happened if there was no national government intervention in Limpopo; were we going to be informed about the status of the province? I hoped the youth league and COSAS were going to attribute the education crisis to the two system of education, private and public in terms of the funding how much does the government subsidise a child in the private school and in a public school? Who`s children are at the public school? The intervention by the national government must be appreciated because it has exposed a lot of problems in our education system, as everyone got an opportunity to start and talk about the weaknesses including taking the government to court for mud schools in the Eastern cape and the non delivery of textbooks in Limpopo; the question is: would these issues raised if there was no government intervention in Limpopo? Why the NGO`s and the opposition parties never took the provincial governments to court or expose them before the intervention? Now they claim to be championing the plight of our people. The issue of the mud schools in the Eastern Cape has been there since the era of apartheid and Bantustan governments; the government of national unity under President Mandela, the democratic government lead by president Mbeki and different provincial leaders who presided over the provincial government and the ANC. WHAT HAS DEEPENED THE CRISIS IN LIMPOPO? There were a lot of resistance from provincial government and ANC provincial structures towards the intervention, in Limpopo the intervention took place when there were political tensions between those who are in charge at Luthuli, union building and the current leadership of the ANC and government in Limpopo. Secondly the intervention took place when there was a crisis between the ANC and the ANCYL especially the Julius Malema saga. The question we must ask ourselves what prompted the intervention? My understanding is that the current Limpopo provincial treasury informed the national treasury about the systemic financial bankruptcy of various departments in the province which are back dated as from 2005 and proposed measures on how to overcome the crisis, such efforts must be appreciated. The crisis gave an opportunity for foes to use their political powers to fight each other; some people saw this as an opportunity to deal with the leadership in Limpopo, their feelings have obscured their objectivity, I do not believe that the national had an opportunity to analyse the extent and the complexity of the problem before the taking the decision to intervene. They failed to manage the process of problem solving and how to manage the change and resistance therefore we must learn a lesson that emotions and factional decisions can cost the country especially the working class and the poor. My understanding is that systems in government do not just fall overnight or in a short space of time, it must be accumulative over the years until the buffer system is overcome by the crisis and that is what happened in Limpopo; the cover up has been there before the current administration therefore we cannot be simplistic and think by removing the minister will be addressing the crisis and providing an ever lasting solution to the crises. What was the crisis at hand when the intervention was implemented? Did the government of Limpopo have money to pay for the textbooks and where this money was coming from? The answer is no, the crisis was already ballooning their budget. WHO SHOULD BE BLAMED? Factionalism and its oppositionist manner within the ANC, when a new administration comes into power it acts like an opposition, remove people from office of responsibility without evaluating their performance, bringing new staff and ballooning the public service with duplication of responsibility especially in the administration. The cancellation of existing tenders without evaluating their performance just because they got the tender from the previous administration, in other cases you find government having two existing contracts and paying them. In Limpopo we have a group of hooligans who are determined to expose the failures of president Zuma`s administration by all means, they do not even respect the ANC and its history; people who wanted to disrupt the ANC president lecture. Knowing their feelings about the intervention and their factional attitudes towards the incumbents it deserves to suggest that they are behind the sabotage in Limpopo in defence of their masters. The government systems have failed our people, what was the legislature and SCOPA in Limpopo doing? Where is their over side role which would have detected the problem earlier if it was functional. Where were the opposition parties and the civil society groups? What was the role of the office the Auditor general in preventing the financial fiasco in Limpopo? Lastly where were the PYA structure and all the MDM structures of the movement? CONCLUSION Let us appreciate that the establishment of the department of basic and higher education made us to expose a lot of weaknesses in our education since the dawn of democracy. The intervention by the national must be appreciated that it has assisted in exposing things which would have been hidden to the nation. The textbook saga has exposed how weak is our security forces especially the intelligence, how come they did not detect the textbook sabotage? And now we know that we are a society which does not like education, it is possibly that those who carried the mandate to dump the textbook their children are suffering too but they cannot come out to the public because they took money from their masters to do the dirty work, what a sick society!!!. The ANC and the democratic movement do not exist at grass roots except during the elections. Both the non delivery of textbooks and destruction of textbooks must be treated as treason to the nation and such actions are counter revolutionary THE WAYFORWARD I think to solve the problem we need a systemic review starting from the constitution in terms of the powers of the central government, because currently we are in a undeclared federal state of south Africa; government must strengthened its monitoring systems and the Auditor general`s office must not just make recommendation but must assist to set up financial and accounting systems to prevent such events in the future. Only one system of education will assure quality education where by the child of the poor can compete with the rich with same resources. The ANC must intensify its political education because the factions in the ANC are destructive to the movement; are not results of ideological approach or different views on policy implementation but the factions are for looting and self enrichment. I have no doubt that sooner or later another province will be declared bankruptcy especially Mpumalanga therefore the call for the minister of basic education to resign will not address the systemic and chronic problems in our education system and our governance system, we need to identify our strength as a nation; consolidate our achievement and have a programme to address our weaknesses. Let us all support and engage with the national development plan. MAVIYO NDINISA
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