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The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education on Tuesday raised serious concern regarding the Western Cape Education Department’s failure to provide the committee with the requested information on learner admissions and placement practices in the province.
 
The committee met today with the national and provincial departments for a follow-up engagement on allegations of racial profiling in learner admissions to schools, particularly in the Western Cape.
 
The engagement follows previous concerns raised before the committee by parents and civil society organisations regarding learner admissions and placement practices in the Western Cape. The committee also noted the Western Cape High Court judgment that highlighted discriminatory practices in admission requirements affecting historically disadvantaged and marginalised communities.
 
The Chairperson of the committee, Ms Joy Maimela, said the committee had expected a comprehensive report on progress made in addressing the allegations and practices identified by the court. “What we expected was a presentation that comprehensively covers what we requested the department to do. What we have before us does not appear to do that,” Ms Maimela said.
 
The committee was concerned that the Western Cape Education MEC submitted correspondence only the day before the meeting, indicating that the province was reluctant to engage on matters linked to the court ruling on the basis that the matter is sub judice.
The Chairperson said this undermined the committee’s ability to prepare properly and, where necessary, seek parliamentary legal advice on the limits of the sub judice rule. “The sub judice rule cannot be used by the provincial education department to evade responding to critical questions or providing information to this portfolio committee,” she said.
 
The committee noted that Parliament’s oversight responsibility does not fall away because a matter is before the courts. Ms Maimela said the committee’s work was rooted not only in the court judgment, but in allegations brought before it before the litigation.
 
“The foundation of our discussion does not emanate from a court ruling. The foundation of our discussion emanates from allegations that were made before this committee that there is some form of racial profiling in admissions and placements in the Western Cape,” she said.
 
During a presentation by the organisation Equal Education, committee members heard from some parents desperate about their children sitting at home without placement. While one committee member noted that this year marks 50 years since the Soweto school uprisings of 1976, the Chairperson reminded the MEC of Education in the Western Cape, provincial officials and the national department of the constitutionally enshrined right to access to education – something that, in a new democracy, is denied to over 200 learners.
 
The committee resolved to elevate the matter to the House Chairperson for Committees and the Office of the Speaker. It will also explore mechanisms available to compel the provincial education department to provide the information required for meaningful oversight.
 
“Somehow, we are made to beg for information as Parliament, and that we will never accept,” said Ms Maimela. “We will never accept being placed in that situation.” She said the committee will continue to monitor the matter, including the information relating to learners who remain unplaced, which the MEC committed to provide.
 
“We are going to monitor this matter closely. We will ensure that the list is sent and that there is action to ensure that your children are placed in school,” she told parents.
 
The committee requested the relevant responses and submissions within seven working days.

Issued by Parliamentary Communication Services on behalf of the chairperson of the portfolio committee on Basic Education, Joy Maimela