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The DA welcomes Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s support of the school rationalisation process in the Western Cape.

Minister Motshekga reportedly stated that Western Cape Education MEC Donald Grant has applied his mind and is quite satisfied that the decision is in the best interests of learners and that she ‘would not have any discomfort supporting him’.

Western Cape ANC alliance members have responded to the school rationalisation programme with political opportunism and a disregard for the best interests of learners.

They are silent on closures in other provinces, because it would not be politically expedient to claim that nothing should be done about finding better education opportunities for learners at non-viable schools with multi-grade classes and limited resources.

Instead of making mindless threats, the Western Cape ANC alliance members would do well to educate themselves and discuss the matter with their own National Basic Education Minister, their own provincial MECs and their own Parliamentary representatives who legislated the process.

The reality is that they won’t because their trumpeting is not about the best interest of learners – it’s about leveraging learner interests for cheap political points.