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The KZN Education Department’s announcement that hundreds of small, non-viable schools would be closed in the province has been met with deafening silence by the ANC and alliance partners.

This is despite a barrage of threats and provocation from the ANC and COSATU in the Western Cape about the Education Department’s proposal to rationalize non-viable schools in the same way.

The ANC’s silence is precisely because they know that better education opportunities need to be found for learners at non-viable schools with multi-grade classes and limited resources. But they cannot resist the opportunity to mindlessly politicize decisions that are made to improve the learning circumstances of learners.

We support the KZN Education Department’s attempts to secure better opportunities for these learners in the same way we support the Western Cape Education Department. Tom Stokes, the DA’s Education spokesperson in KZN, has submitted parliamentary questions to MEC Senzo Mchunu to ascertain how many schools have been closed since 2009 in KZN – an answer we anticipate soon.

The hypocrisy of the ANC’s vastly different reaction to these two decisions brings into question why they’ve been so vocal in the Western Cape alone.

Marius Fransman and Tony Ehrenreich have some explaining to do.