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President Jacob Zuma has been ambiguous over key recommendations from the task team that he appointed to investigate the textbook crisis in Limpopo. Instead of decisively adopting the recommendations, he has chosen to focus on identifying a scapegoat.

The inter-ministerial task team report released by the Presidency late Friday made a number of pragmatic recommendations to avoid a repeat of the crisis, hold role-players accountable and address loopholes in existing intervention procedures. Yet the President failed to provide any clear directives on how these recommendations should be dealt with.

The report included the following crucial recommendations to avoid a recurrence of the Limpopo textbook debacle:
Develop a standardised policy for the procurement and distribution of textbooks and stationery.
Conduct a head count for learners and teachers in the province, to be finalised by the end of November 2012, that will serve as the basis for future procurements.
Implement a monitoring mechanism to monitor the implementation of the catch-up plan.
Critical recommendations to hold those responsible to account include:
Request the Public Service Commission (PSC) to investigate the role of the Director-General of the Department of Basic Education (DBE), Bobby Soobrayan, in contributing to the delay in delivery of textbooks.
Request the PSC to investigate the Head of Department and the Chief Financial Officer of the Limpopo Department of Education (LDoE) for allegedly contravening supply management principles and failing to fulfil their responsibilities.
Request the PSC to investigate the HOD of the Limpopo Treasury for alleged non-compliance with supply chain management procedures and the Public Finance Management Act.
Key recommendations to prevent service delivery collapses during interventions by National Government in provinces include:
Ensure that sufficient human and financial capacity is available to support interventions by developing a mechanism to deploy institutional capacity when the need arises.
Finalise the Monitoring, Support and Interventions (MSI) Bill that deals with interventions in provincial government and in municipalities by 15 November 2012 and introduce them into the Cabinet process by January 2013.
Appoint a technical team comprising representatives of the Department of Co-operative Governance, National Treasury and the Department of Public Service and Administration to work on ensuring synergy between the various legislations that have an impact on such interventions.
Submit an interim intervention governance framework for Cabinet approval by the end of September 2012.
Out of all these recommendations, President Zuma has unambiguously adopted only two of them. The first was to request a report from the DBE on the delivery of textbooks and the catch-up plan and the second was to ask for an investigation into the Director-General of the DBE.

He then made an unclear request to the Ministers in the Presidency, Collins Chabane and Trevor Manuel, to assist the Minister of Basic Education in fulfilling the recommendations of the report.

Does that mean that he has adopted all of the recommendations, including the time frames – of which the interim intervention governance framework for the end of September has already been missed?

Does it also mean that he will request the PSC to investigate the HOD and the CFO of the Limpopo Department of Education and the HOD of the Limpopo Treasury?

The President has missed yet another opportunity to show true leadership by acting unambiguously and decisively on recommendations aimed at alleviating on-going problems of service delivery in the education sector and holding under-performing officials to account.

I will be submitting parliamentary questions to the Presidency to gain clarity on his decisions, and will ensure that the prioritisation of the task team’s recommendations remains high on the agenda of the portfolio committee of basic education.